^<^^ 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


STcacijers'  ^Jtofeggional  ILifararg 

Edited  by  NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER 


THE  AMERICAN  SECONDARY  SCHOOL 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO 
DALLAS   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE 
AMERICAN  SECONDARY  SCHOOL 

AND 

SOME  OF  ITS  PROBLEMS 


BY 


JULIUS   SACHS,  Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF   SECONDARY  EDUCATION   IN   TEACHERS 
COLLEGE,   COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 

27772. 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 
1912 

Aii  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  igia, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  June,  1912. 


WorfaoolJ  i^rfssa 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Hcrwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


3  1  ^ 


PREFACE 

There  are  educational  questions  involving  so  large 
an  area  of  interest  that  they  defy  treatment  at  the  hand 
of  an  individual ;  a  mere  enumeration  of  the  problems 
that  attach  themselves  to  our  secondary  schools  would 
suffice  to  indicate  the  unwisdom  of  such  an  attempt.  On 
individual  questions  and  groups  of  questions,  thought- 
ful men  and  women  have  concentrated  their  efforts ; 
to  combine  their  contributions  to  the  various  phases  of 
the  subject  under  wise  editorial  control  into  a  consistent 
whole,  to  create  a  thesaurus  of  sound  opinion  on  what 
the  secondary  school  has  been,  is,  and  should  be,  seems 
the  only  way  of  reaching  an  agreement  on  the  rational 
conduct  of  our  middle  schools.  The  cooperative  idea 
seems  peculiarly  appropriate  to  this  need  of  our  educa- 
tional scheme. 

As  for  the  present  treatise,  its  title  speaks  for  itself. 
It  has  been  realized  by  the  author  that  it  is  wiser  to 
concentrate  attention  upon  some  of  the  problems  of  the 
secondary  school  and  indicate  their  significance  rather 
fully,  than  to  compass  all,  or  even  a  majority,  of  the 
questions  that  attach  themselves  to  our  system  of  middle 
schools.     He  has  subordinated  all  questions  of  method. 


VI  PREFACE 

of  curriculum,  to  what  has  appeared  to  him  the  deter- 
mining factor  in  a  secondary  school  system,  the  fitness 
of  the  teacher  for  his  task;  the  book  has,  in  conse- 
quence, become  an  appeal  to  and  for  the  teacher.  It 
traverses  many  topics  which  other  writers  have  found 
it  necessary  to  elaborate  into  special  treatises ;  the 
value  of  these  he  does  not  disparage,  though  he  thinks 
their  appeal  might  often  with  profit  be  presented  more 
compactly.  The  American  secondary  teacher  of  to-day 
is  constantly  and  very  properly  reminded  in  books, 
educational  conferences  and  lectures,  of  the  technique 
of  his  task ;  despite  some  objurgators  of  a  science  of 
teaching  it  may  be  said,  once  for  all,  that  in  almost  all 
civilized  countries  of  the  world  the  necessity  of  the 
professional  training  of  the  teacher  is  recognized.  But 
he  cannot  make  bricks  without  straw,  —  his  own  intel- 
lectual grasp,  his  capacity  in  the  subject-matter  he 
handles,  must  be  beyond  question ;  he  must  be  pre- 
pared to  grow,  must  feel  the  supreme  *  obligation  to 
grow,  intellectually  ;  he  must  experience  the  glow  of 
the  artist,  not  rest  content  with  the  cleverness  of  the 
artisan.  In  accord  with  this  dominating  thought,  there 
have  been  added  to  the  body  of  this  book,  besides  two 
excursuses,  a  series  of  outlines  on  The  Teaching  of  sev- 
eral subject  groups  in  the  Secondary  School  Course ; 
their  object  is  to  rouse  the  individual  teacher  to  such 
study  of  his  chosen  field  as  will  give  him  the  widest 


PREFACE  VU 

possible  survey  of  the  questions  involved  in  the  pres- 
entation of  the  subject.  Here  and  there  the  wording 
of  these  outlines  may  reveal  the  personal  convictions 
of  the  author,  but  it  is  the  author's  aim,  with  the 
aid  of  the  bibliographical  notes,  to  invite  each  teacher 
to  a  formulation  of  his  individual  opinion  on  any  and 
every  phase  of  the  teaching  issues.  With  his  classes 
the  author  has  used  similar  outlines  for  the  group  of 
mathematical  and  science  subjects  ;  he  has  limited  him- 
self, in  the  present  instance,  to  the  historico-Hnguistic 
group  for  definite  reasons  ;  in  one  and  all  of  them 
there  still  prevails  the  widest  divergence  in  procedure, 
the  significance  of  which  each  teacher  must  fully  grasp, 
if  he  would  be  an  adept,  not  a  slave  to  tradition. 

To  President  Nicholas  Murray  Butler  the  author  is 
deeply  indebted  for  the  first  impulse  that  led  to  the 
inception  of  the  present  work.  In  its  progress  he  has 
derived  constant  inspiration  and  guidance  from  the 
investigations  of  Sadler  and  Findlay  in  England,  of 
Matthias,  Fries,  and  Reinhardt  in  Germany,  advocates, 
one  and  all,  of  an  idealism  in  education  which  tran- 
scends the  borders  of  nationalism  and  of  local  educa- 
tional problems. 

JULIUS   SACHS. 

New  York, 
June,  1 91 2. 


CONTENTS 
PART  I 


PAGE 

The  Teacher i 


PART   II 

CHAPTER 

I.    The  Present  Status  of  the  Public  High  School      85 

II.     The  Private  Secondary  School      ....     154 

III.     The  Educational  Policy  of  the  Secondary  School    192 

Excursus    I.    The  Continuation  School        .        .        .    230 
Excursus  II.    The  Function  of  the  Educational  Ex- 
pert        242 

Appendix:    Outlines    for    the    Teaching    of  Certain 

Subject  Groups  in  the  Secondary  School  Course    269 


EDITOR'S    INTRODUCTION 

The  American  people  will  find  it  to  their  advantage 
to  direct  an  increasing  amount  of  attention  to  the  sec- 
ondary school,  its  function  and  its  problems.  The  task 
of  the  elementary  school  is  of  necessity  defined  with 
reasonable  clearness  and  certainty.  The  task  of  the  sec- 
ondary school,  however,  is  much  less  fully  understood. 
The  experience  of  European  countries  will  aid  and  guide 
us  in  many  ways.  A  close  study  of  the  problems  of  men- 
tal growth  and  development,  as  these  occur  in  connec- 
tion with  boys  and  girls  from  twelve  to  eighteen  years 
of  age,  will  also  do  much.  A  study  of  the  social  and 
industrial  opportunities  and  influences  which  are  at  work 
in  present  day  society,  both  in  Europe  and  in  America, 
will  do  perhaps  even  more. 

The  work  of  the  secondary  school  is  of  a  kind  that 
necessitates  differentiation  and  a  choice  between  differ- 
ent programs  of  study  and  between  different,  sometimes 
competing,  educational  ends  and  aims.  The  secondary 
school  must  exist  in  sufficiently  diverse  forms  and  must 
be  administered  with  sufficient  elasticity  of  method  to 
enable  it  to  adapt  itself  to  the  needs  of  a  complex 
social  organism. 

zi 


Xll  EDITOR  S   INTRODUCTION 

In  a  democratic  society  the  secondary  school  has 
one  other  and  vitally  important  function  to  perform. 
It  must  train  those  who,  by  a  process  of  natural  selec- 
tion, are  marked  out  for  leadership  in  their  several 
communities.  It  must  so  shape  their  minds  and  char- 
acters and  so  direct  their  energies  that  they  will  be 
able,  in  later  life,  to  make  wise  use  of  the  opportunities 
for  leadership  and  direction  that  have  come  to  them. 
The  secondary  school  that  overlooks  this  aspect  of  its 
problem  is  not  a  secondary  school  at  all,  but  only  a 
link  in  a  chain. 

The  rapid  growth  of  secondary  schools  in  the  United 
States  is  evidence,  if  evidence  were  needed,  that  the 
secondary  school  problem  is  being  attacked  in  this 
country  with  vigor.  The  danger  lies  in  the  fact  that 
so  many  secondary  schools  are  established  and  con- 
ducted in  mere  imitation  of  institutions  elsewhere.  Edu- 
cation by  imitation  is  much  less  helpful  than  education 
for  ideals.  The  wise  policy  for  a  community  to  pursue  is 
to  make  itself  familiar  with  the  function  and  the  prob- 
lems of  the  secondary  school,  and  then  to  establish  for 
itself  such  type  of  secondary  school,  or  so  many  sec- 
ondary schools  of  differing  types,  as  will  best  meet  the 
individual,  social,  and  industrial  needs  of  the  children 
of  its  own  population. 

NICHOLAS   MURRAY   BUTLER 
Columbia  University, 

New  York,  May  15,  1912 


INTRODUCTION 

The  American  Secondary  School  of  to-day  is  in  a 
process  of  transformation ;  it  is  the  outgrowth  of  a 
series  of  institutions,  which,  under  the  varying  names 
of  Middle  or  Secondary  schools,  in  different  cultural 
communities,  represent  systems  of  instruction  that  ante- 
date in  their  origin  the  elementary  school,  the  college, 
and  the  university.  From  it  have  developed  methods 
of  securing  the  fundamentals  of  knowledge-acquisition 
(primary  work)  which  open  the  possibilities  of  intellec- 
tual growth  to  all ;  out  of  it  have  branched,  as  insight 
has  increased,  the  countless  phases  of  inquiry  that  con- 
stitute the  burden  of  a  higher  education. 

The  vigorous  and  unrestricted  growth  rootward  and 
upward  has  constrained  the  parent  stock  within  limi- 
tations that  have  made  definition  of  the  present  pur- 
poses and  functions  of  the  Secondary  School  a  matter 
of  difficulty.  The  upper  limits  of  the  elementary  school, 
and  the  lower  ranges  of  the  college  studies,  have  poached 
upon  the  secondary  school's  preserves ;  the  attempt  is 
here  to  be  made  to  define  more  especially  as  far  as 
the  United  States  are  concerned,  its  proper  confines, 
and  to  set  forth  some  of  its  problems  and  the  available 
means  of  meeting  them. 


XIV  INTRODUCTION 

In  this  connection  we  shall  freely  draw  upon  the  ex- 
periences of  European  schools.  The  tendency  to  ignore 
such  experiences  is  an  erroneous  one;  whatever  has 
proved  effective  elsewhere  is  worthy  of  our  serious 
thought;  it  is  our  duty  and  our  privilege  to  adapt  to 
our  own  conditions  the  processes  that  have  approved 
themselves  to  expert  educational  opinion.  Our  educa- 
tion must  be  national,  but  need  not  be  exclusive. 

There  have  been  countless  contributions,  individual 
and  collective,  to  the  study  of  the  problems  of  the 
Secondary  School;  now  it  was  the  scientific  arrange- 
ment of  programs  of  study,  now  the  method  and  forms 
of  instruction,  again  the  adaptation  of  the  courses  pur- 
sued to  the  actual  needs  of  Hfe,  that  have  given  direc- 
tion to  the  doctrines  advanced.  The  present  author's 
aim,  it  may  be  stated  at  the  outset,  is  to  focus  attention 
upon  the  necessity  for  America  of  distinctly  superior 
attainments  in  our  teachers.  It  is  his  belief  that  neither 
scientific  classification  of  subject  matter  nor  psycho- 
logical analysis  of  the  adolescent  mind  and  impulses 
can  avail  without  accurate  and  ever-growing  positive 
knowledge  of  the  teacher. 

As  he  regards  the  situation,  the  day  of  the  textbook 
as  the  paramount  teacher  has  passed ;  teachers  who 
merely  recapitulate  or  indifferently  interpret  the  formu- 
lated statements  of  the  textbook,  who  cannot  contribute 
from  a  rich  store  of  collateral  information  the  individual 


INTRODUCTION  XV 

note  without  which  there  can  be  no  vital  class  interest, 
are  useless  in  the  scheme  of  a  rational  secondary  school. 
The  advocates  of  the  textbook  notwithstanding,  our  boys 
and  girls,  if  they  are  to  profit  by  attendance  in  the  sec- 
ondary schools,  must  be  guided  by  thoroughly  trained, 
thoroughly  informed  instructors.  And  with  the  decline 
of  the  textbook  as  the  sole  bulwark  of  accurate  knowl- 
edge, there  must  go  hand  in  hand  a  complete  revision 
of  our  recitation  system,  which  in  its  prevailing  form 
affords  but  the  slightest  stimulus  to  teacher  and  stu- 
dent. Our  secondary  school  system  falls  short  of  ideal 
results,  mainly  because  we  lack  a  sufficient  number  of 
teachers  competent  to  enlarge  with  the  freedom  of  a 
generous  attainment  upon  the  topics  it  embraces.  It  is 
idle  to  seek  elsewhere  the  causes  of  a  declining  interest 
in  the  secondary  school  courses ;  weak  teachers  create 
weak  courses. 

The  example  of  the  German  and  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  and  more  recently  of  France  and  England, 
points  clearly  to  our  needs.  Abroad  we  find  teachers 
richly  informed  in  college  and  university  courses  that 
are  designed  to  illuminate  their  school  work,  and  in  ad- 
dition they  undergo  theoretic  and  practical  guidance  in 
the  art  of  imparting.  The  effectiveness  of  our  second- 
ary schools  will  be  determined  by  a  recognition  and 
acceptance  of  these  two  fundamental  needs ;  we  must 
insist  on  similar  processes  of  preparation,  though  we 


XVI  INTRODUCTION 

may  depart  because  of  our  special  problems  from  the 
detail  in  method  pursued  abroad.  If  at  present  much 
of  our  secondary  work  is  pronounced  lackadaisical, 
wanting  in  spirit  and  in  incisiveness,  it  is  primarily  a 
question  of  the  competent  or  incompetent  teacher. 
This  country  can  afford  to  possess  fewer  secondary 
schools;  it  needs  imperatively  better-manned  second- 
ary schools.  It  is  an  issue  that  should  not  be  obscured  ; 
our  best  teachers  recognize  the  defect  which  is  due  to 
lack  of  opportunity  in  the  college  and  the  training 
school,  and  they  zealously  strive  to  remedy  it;  incom- 
petent and  self-satisfied  teachers  must  be  confronted 
with  the  fact  that  the  era  of  conventional  performance 
is  passing  away. 

Our  commonwealths  too  will  learn  to  gauge  the  true 
value  of  capable  teachers,  and  will  sooner  or  later 
discover  that  the  servant  is  worthy  of  his  hire ;  it  is 
an  irrepatable  loss  to  a  community  to  permit  a  com- 
petent teacher  to  depart  because  of  a  refused  increase 
of  salary ;  it  is  not  possible  to  measure  in  percent- 
ages the  difference  in  value  between  genuine  efficiency 
and  commonplace  routine  attainment.  Our  schools 
require  teachers  who  can  teach,  who  are  completely  at 
home  in  the  subject  or  subjects  they  are  called  upon 
to  handle  and  who  have  mastered  the  art  of  presenta- 
tion ;  the  hearing  of  recitations  can  be  but  an  incident 
in  such  a  conception  of  the  teacher's  function.     The 


INTRODUCTION  XVll 

importance,  then,  of  the  teacher  to  the  success  of  any 
secondary  scheme  of  instruction  should  justify  the  pre- 
cedence given  in  this  book  to  the  chapter  on  the 
teacher. 

A  word  as  to  the  general  tone  of  this  treatise,  which 
to  some  may  seem  a  picture  gray  in  gray ;  not  to  fore- 
stall or  disarm  opposing  views,  but  in  the  interest  of 
the  cause  that  the  author  desires  to  advance.  He  is  a 
firm  believer  in  the  value  of  outspoken  criticism ;  it  is 
not  in  a  spirit  of  petty  faultfinding  that  he  indicates 
the  present  shortcomings  in  our  secondary  schools. 
Self-complacency  is  the  eternal  foe  of  progress ;  it  is 
not  pessimistic  to  apply  unhesitatingly  the  probe  of  ex- 
perience to  our  efforts.  Let  others,  our  visitors  from 
abroad,  commend  what  they  find  commendable  in  our 
schools ;  we  want  to  ascertain  wherein  we  are  deficient, 
and  then  endeavor  to  improve.  There  is  something 
stimulating  and  wholesome  in  a  state  of  mind  that  is 
never  satisfied  with  present  achievements ;  in  education, 
least  of  all,  can  any  community  afford  to  rest  upon  the 
laurels  of  its  attainments;  a  virile  disaffection  prompts 
to  further  endeavor,  to  revision  and  reconstruction  in 
effort. 

And  finally  we  have  no  desire  to  make  our  schools  an 
exact  copy  of  any  type  of  foreign  school ;  there  are 
abundant  reasons  for  adhering  in  our  aims  to  ideals  par- 
ticularly suited  to  our  conditions.     The  courses  of  a 


XVlll  INTRODUCTION 

German  gymnasium,  a  French  \yc6e,  or  an  English 
pubHc  school,  like  Eton  or  Rugby,  we  would  not  dupli- 
cate, if  we  could,  for  our  pupils ;  they  would  not  bear 
transplantation,  they  would  be  an  exotic  in  our  system. 
But  it  is  the  high  order  of  efficiency  in  their  teachers, 
rather  than  the  nature  of  their  curricula,  that  imparts 
distinction  to  them,  and  it  is  this  quality  in  the  teacher, 
professional  ability  and  exactness  in  information,  toward 
which  our  efforts  must  be  directed.  Granted  that  our 
aims  are  more  modest  than  those  that  prevail  abroad, 
they  should  at  least  be  rigidly  maintained  and  com- 
pletely realized.  Consummate  knowledge  and  skill  in 
the  teacher  are  imperatively  the  backbone  of  any  and 
every  system  of  secondary  education. 


THE  AMERICAN  SECONDARY  SCHOOL 


THE   AMEklCAN*  SECONDARY 
SCHOOL 

PART   I 
The  Teacher 

I.   Preparation  in  subject  matter. 

"  An  open-mmded  examination  of  the  merits  of  foreign 
systems  is  the  guarantee  that  secures  us  against  stagna- 
tion, against  decline."  —  De  Tocqueville. 

On  the  teacher  and  his  preparation  depends  primarily 
the  success  of  the  secondary  school.  It  is  no  easy  task 
to  create  a  public  opinion  that  will  accept  with  all  its 
consequences  the  consideration  of  the  teacher's  vocation 
as  a  profession,  and  that  will  be  ready  to  look  upon  the 
teacher  as  a  professional  expert.  He  himself  must 
challenge  public  opinion  on  this  subject  in  two  ways : 
by  his  present  attitude,  and  by  the  steps  he  has  taken 
to  reach  his  present  station ;  i.e.  by  his  view  of  the  true 
nature  of  his  professional  work,  and  by  his  professional 
preparation,  By  these  will  he  be  judged,  and  he  has 
no  right  to  claim  the  emoluments  or  the  social  distinc- 


2  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

tions  that  come  to  a  professional  man,  unless  his  atti- 
tude in  both  these  respects  is  correct. 

The  physician  secures  professional  standing  by  evi- 
dence he  furnishes  of  a  prolonged  course  of  study  in 
which  he  acquires  the  scientific  basis  of  his  subject;  to 
this  he  must  add  during  years  in  the  medical  school  and 
in  hospital  service  practical  clinical  work,  before  health 
and  life  are  intrusted  to  him.  The  same  holds  for  the  law- 
yer, engineer,  architect;  with  this  additional  proviso,  that 
in  none  of  these  callings  would  a  man  enjoy  professional 
confidence  unless  it  were  felt  that  his  calling  were  not 
adopted  as  a  makeshift,  but  as  a  permanent  life's  work, 
with  a  clear  perception  of  the  fact  that  a  rise  through 
various  stages  to  positions  of  responsibility  will  depend 
upon  his  own  constant  mental  growth.  The  transi- 
tional work  in  teaching,  of  which  this  country  affords 
so  many  familiar  examples,  whilst  it  may  be  good  for 
the  teacher,  is,  except  in  very  rare  cases,  bad  for  pupil 
and  school ;  lack  of  perspective,  absence  of  stimulus  to 
secure  a  broader  grasp,  has  harmed  teaching  as  a  pro- 
fession ;  it  has  been  assumed  that  any  one  can  teach. 

Our  conception  of  preparation  is  a  curiously  inade- 
quate one,  and  we  may  at  once  characterize  as  make- 
shifts some  of  the  agencies  upon  which  many  second- 
ary schools  draw  for  their  teaching  staff.  Our  normal 
schools  are  more  or  less  adequate  to  the  training  of  the 
elementary  school  teacher ;  they  do  not  suffice  for  the 


THE   TEACHER  3 

future  secondary  school  teacher.  As  informational  ma- 
terial, high  school  subjects  are  desirable,  even  necessary, 
for  the  elementary  teacher,  but  these  normal  schools 
cannot  properly  embrace  in  their  curriculum  the  theory 
and  practice  in  the  teaching  of  high  school  subjects 
without  weakening  their  effectiveness  for  the  elemen- 
tary school  work.  Their  instructors  are  in  the  fewest 
cases  capable  of  handling  the  theory  of  the  higher  sub- 
jects with  the  necessary  mastery,  as  the  statistics  of 
their  own  preparatory  training  show ;  ^  in  too  many 
instances  their  high  school  instruction  is  apt  to  be  a. 
weak  effort  to  reach  the  plane  of  an  efficient  high  school 
course. 

Experiences  in  England  to  train  elementary,  and  sec- 
ondary teachers  in  the  same  training  colleges  have  called 
forth  the  following  comment :  "  I  believe  that  training 
is  affected  to  a  small  degree  by  the  kind  of  educa- 
tional work  students  are  going  to  undertake,  but  it 
is  affected  to  a  considerable  degree  by  the  kind  of 
education  which  students  have  received ;  it  appears  to 
me  undesirable  to  train  together  a  pupil  teacher  edu- 
cated in  an  elementary  school  with  another  student  who 
has  a  degree  obtained  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.     On  the 

1  Meriam,  J.  L.,  Normal  School  Education  (Columbia  University  Con- 
tributions to  Education),  Chap.  VI.  Thirty  per  cent  of  all  normal  school 
instructors  have  received  no  educational  training  in  advance  of  the 
school  in  which  they  are  now  teaching. 


4  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

Other  hand,  I  see  no  reason  why  two  university  graduates 
should  not  with  advantage  be  trained  together,  although 
one  intends  teaching  in  a  secondary  school,  the  other 
in  an  elementary  school."  ^ 

The  consciousness  of  this  weakness,  and  of  the  meager 
mental  outlook  that  normal  school  students  usually 
bring  to  their  course,  suggested  the  plan  of  creating  a 
special  type  of  normal  school  for  students  of  collegiate 
rank,  intended  to  fit  them  directly  for  secondary  work ; 
such  a  proposal  was  made  in  Massachusetts,^  but  was 
defeated.  It  is  in  fact  not  feasible,  and  it  would  in- 
volve a  wasteful  duplication  of  effort.^ 

The  natural  agency  for  the  training  of  secondary 
teachers  is  the  college  which  is  to  furnish  the  requisite 
knowledge  of  subject  matter,  and  the  training  college 
which  is  to  apply  the  general  principles  of  pedagogy  to 
the  secondary  school  subjects.  The  demand  that  gradu- 
ation in  good  standing  from  a  reputable  college  shall  be 
the  minimum  attainment  of  the  future  secondary  teacher 
is  unfortunately  not  yet  generally  recognized ;  certain  it 
is  that  the  intellectual  outfit  acquired  during  the  second- 
ary school  period  cannot  suffice  for  the  future  secondary 

1  Roberts,  Education  in  the  N'ineteenth  Century,  Cambridge  Exten- 
sion Lectures,  1900,  p.  182. 

*  F.  Atkinson,  Professional  Preparation  of  Secondary  Teachers  in  the 
United  States,  Breitkopf  &  Hartel,  1893.  Atkinson  prefers  the  name 
"  Post-graduate  Pedagogical  School "  ;  cf.  Eng.  Spec.  Reports,  7. 381. 

'  Pritchett,  Carnegie  Foundation,  5th  Annual  Report,  76. 


THE   TEACHER  5 

teacher.  He  would  be  likely  to  teach  just  what  he  was 
taught  and  as  he  was  taught;  this  danger  can  be  re- 
moved by  the  interposition  of  the  larger  mental  experi- 
ence gained  in  a  new  period  (the  college  years)  of  study 
and  thought ;  it  enables  the  candidate  to  rise  to  some- 
thing like  a  critical  estimate  of  his  former  teachers  and 
their  methods. 

An  examination  of  the  teaching  body  in  the  high 
schools  of  many  states  reveals  a  large  percentage  of 
teachers  whose  academic  training  has  been  insufficient. 
Unless  the  legislation  of  a  state  specifically  demands 
of  its  high  school  teachers  college  graduation,  a  lower 
order  of  attainment  is  likely  to  be  the  rule.  The  lax- 
ity in  a  number  of  our  older  states  in  this  respect  is 
in  striking  contrast  with  the  specific  and  insistent  de- 
mand of  states  like  California.^  What  has  been  en- 
forced as  a  minimum  standard  in  scholarship  in  several 
western  states  ought  to  be  made  by  legislation  the  irre- 
ducible requirement  everywhere.  It  could  not  be  made 
retroactive,  for  it  would  eliminate  a  large  percentage  of 
our  actual  teaching  force  that  has  enjoyed  either  no 
college  course  or  only  a  fragmentary  one,  but  it  should 
govern  the  appointment  of  new  teachers,  so  that  within 
a  generation  or  less  a  uniformly  higher  scholastic  stand- 
ard would  be  assured. 

1  Brown,  J.  F.,  The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Secondary  Schools,  pp. 

210-214,  Macmillan,  1911. 


6  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

But  let  it  be  said  at  once  :  the  perfunctory  completion 
of  a  college  course  does  not  qualify  a  young  man  or 
woman  to  teach  high  school  subjects.  Many  of  these 
young  persons  have  not  definitely  had  the  teaching 
career  in  view,  and  the  actual  record  of  their  college 
performance  does  not  offer  a  very  sound  guarantee  of 
definite  scholastic  attainment;  in  the  case  of  the  teacher, 
more  than  that  of  any  other  professional  man,  success 
depends  largely  on  the  soundness  of  preparation  in  fun- 
damentals; for  it  becomes  his  duty  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions for  the  intellectual  growth  of  the  next  generation. 

The  character  of  the  future  teacher's  own  training 
in  the  foundations  of  his  subject  or  subjects  it  should 
be  the  business  of  the  college  to  determine ;  if  the 
terms  of  admission  to  college  are  not  sufficiently  ex- 
acting to  insure  accuracy  in  fundamental  knowledge 
(and  they  are  not,  whether  tested  by  entrance  exami- 
nations or  by  admission  under  the  accrediting  system), 
then  the  college  should  not  send  such  a  candidate  forth 
as  teacher  without  the  special  training  that  makes 
for  accuracy.  A  superstructure  of  advanced  collegiate 
courses,  reared  on  a  basis  that  is  imperfect  or  inade- 
quate, propagates  superficiality,  inaccuracy.  There  is 
no  part  of  a  college's  work  more  important  than  the 
proper  intellectual  equipment  of  the  future  teacher ;  ^  it 

^  Butler,  N.  M.,  Meaning  of  Education,  p.  159.  The  colleges  have, 
until  very  recently,  done  little  to  show  that  they  are  aware  of  what  is 


THE   TEACHER  7 

should  be  recognized  as  a  distinctive  feature  of  college 
work,  and  if  its  attainment  involves  the  creation  of 
special  sections  for  intending  teachers,  that  step  should 
be  undertaken  in  the  interest  of  sound  teaching.  In  co- 
educational institutions  and  in  the  women's  colleges, 
from  which  a  very  large  percentage  of  the  teachers 
issue,  such  an  arrangement  is  specially  desirable. 

Even  in  Germany,  where  a  rigorously  organized  sec- 
ondary school  system  insures  a  high  degree  of  accuracy 
in  the  future  teacher's  fundamental  training,  provision 
to  emphasize  this  accuracy  is  made  in  the  university 
scheme  by  the  institution  of  seminars  for  a  resurvey  of 
the  school  subjects  in  the  light  of  the  more  advanced 
pursuit  of  the  same  subjects.  Professor  Baumann  of 
Gottingen  advocates  under  the  general  heading  of 
Schulwissenschaften  ^  a  fuller  consideration  of  this 
relationship,  and  urges  the  appointment  for  the  teach- 
ing of  these  Schulwissenschaften  of  men  who  have 
risen  to  the  rank  of  advanced  academic  scholars  from 
a  previous  career  as  expert  teachers  in  secondary 
schools. 

We  need,  says  Baumann,  a  special  group  of  university 
professors  who  combine  with  genuine  scientific  bent  the 

being  accomplished  in  the  study  of  education.  Consequently  they  have 
failed  to  contribute  their  proper  proportion  of  duly  qualified  teachers. 

1  Baumann,  lulius,  Schulwissenschaften  als  besondere  F'dcher  auf  Uni^ 
versit'dten.     Leipzig,  1899. 


8  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

zeal  to  make  their  subjects  available  for  teaching  pur- 
poses in  the  schools ;  the  teaching  point  of  view  should 
be  constantly  kept  in  sight,  so  that  parallel  with  the 
scientific  pursuit  of  a  subject  there  would  be  consid- 
ered the  questions :  what  can  be  taught  (in  the  second- 
ary school)  ?  how  is  it  to  be  taught  ?  to  what  degree  are 
modern  theories  to  be  introduced?  "Unquestionably," 
he  continues,  "  unless  counteracted,  the  tendency  of  col- 
lege and  university  studies  leads  away  from  the  needs 
of  the  classroom." 

It  is  not  yet  generally  recognized  in  our  own  col- 
lege circles  that  students  may  very  appropriately  be 
initiated  into  the  advanced  stages  of  scholarly  insight 
and  appreciation,  in  the  same  subject  matter  that  in 
its  more  elementary  forms  constitutes  the  material  of 
instruction  in  the  secondary  schools ;  e.g.  a  classical 
author,  read  in  the  schools,  like  Vergil,  may  well 
form  the  topic  of  an  advanced  college  course ;  in  the 
broader  outlook  of  such  a  college  course  the  future 
teacher  would  find  many  a  fruitful  suggestion  that 
would  enrich  his  later  presentation  of  the  subject  to  his 
class.^  There  is  distinctly  need,  in  the  interest  of  the 
intending  teacher,  of  brief  didactic  courses  in  which  the 

1  In  a  summer  course  at  Columbia,  Professor  McCrea  interprets 
several  books  of  Vergil  to  teachers  {vide  announcement) 

a.  as  they  should  be  known  by  the  teacher. 

b.  as  they  should  be  known  by  the  class. 


THE   TEACHER  9 

classification  and  grouping  of  the  mass  of  knowledge  in 
a  given  subject  becomes  a  vital  feature;  he  should  ac- 
quire broad,  but  correct,  generalizations  from  college 
professors  who  have  reached  these  conclusions  after, 
and  because  of,  careful  specific  detail  work,  and  who 
present  general  statements  with  cautious  reserve. 

The  candidate  teacher  for  the  secondary  schools  must 
not  be  a  narrow  specialist,  absorbed  in  one  subject  of 
the  secondary  school  course,  and  indifferent  and  inex- 
perienced along  every  other  line.  From  the  undesira- 
ble extreme  of  earlier  days,  when  a  teacher  with  or 
without  qualifications  for  the  task  was  expected  to  teach 
almost  every  subject  of  the  secondary  curriculum,  we 
have  gone  to  the  other  extreme  of  the  one-subject 
teacher,  and  the  colleges  have  ardently  advocated  this 
tendency  to  specialization.  Aside  from  the  fact  that 
the  one-topic  teacher  is  an  obstacle  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  curriculum  of  all  but  large  city  schools,  as  he  is 
either  disquahfied  or  reluctant  to  be  assigned  to  any 
other  subject,  this  tendency  to  specialization  is  harm- 
ful to  every  type  of  secondary  school.  The  one-topic 
teacher  appreciates  only  the  significance  of  his  own 
field ;  desirous  of  making  it  prominent  in  the  school 
curriculum,  he  is  apt  to  demand  in  its  favor  a  sacrifice 
of  other  topics ;  being  himself  limited  in  the  range  of 
his  interests,  he  is  not  likely  to  apportion  in  a  judicial 
spirit  the  emphasis  that  should  be  distributed  among  a 


lO  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

number  of  subjects  of  the  course.^  In  fact  the  very 
intensity  of  the  specialist  operates  against  the  primal 
function  of  the  secondary  school,  an  expansion  of  youth- 
ful interests,  disclosure  of  various  avenues  of  pursuit, 
each  with  an  interest  of  its  own,  each  offering  attrac- 
tions to  one  or  the  other  student. 

As  an  integral  part  of  a  school  organism,  and  as  a 
contributor  to  the  making  of  an  all-round  human  being 
with  a  wholesome  preliminary  outlook  into  various  pos- 
sibilities of  human  activity  before  a  final  choice  is  made, 
the  specialist  has  little  to  offer.  The  interplay  of  in- 
tellectual interests  should  be  unfolded  to  the  growing 
minds  of  our  young  people  ;  even  where  a  strong  native 
bent  manifests  itself  early,  the  influence  of  the  school 
should  be  in  the  direction  of  a  broadening  of  sympa- 
thies, rather  than  of  a  narrowing  tendency,^  Necessary 
as  specialization  has  become  in  the  activities  of  life,  and 
in  the  higher  stages  of  professional  activity,  its  limita- 

1  Sadler,  English  Special  Reports,  IX,  20 :  "  Under  right  conditions 
technical  and  professional  studies  are  restrained  by  the  humane  influ- 
ences of  general  culture  from  undue  or  premature  specialization,  and 
from  selfish  preoccupation  in  their  own  immediate  concerns."  And  of 
this  undesirable  tendency  in  the  specialist  Bascom  says,  Atlantic  Monthly, 
June,  1903,  p.  749  :  "  Not  only  does  he  not  rise  to  the  height  of  all  knowl- 
edge, he  does  not  rise  to  the  height  of  his  own  knowledge." 

2  WoodhuU,  J.  F.,  "  Modern  Trend  of  Physics  and  Chemistry  Teach- 
ing," Educational  Review,  March,  1906,  pp.  236-247.  Canfield,  James  H., 
"  Wanted  :  A  Teacher,"  Educatioftal  Review,  December,  1900,  pp.  433— 
443.  Sachs,  J.  "  The  Departmental  Organization  of  Secondary  Schools," 
Education,  April,  1907,  pp.  484^96. 


THE   TEACHER  II 

tions  do  not  serve  the  best  interests  of  the  pupil  in  the 
secondary  school,  and  the  specialist  teacher  in  the  sec- 
ondary school,  if  completely  engrossed  in  his  specialty, 
is  not  the  most  helpful  adviser.  Goethe's  "Wer  nur 
eine  Sprache  kennt,  kennt  keine  "  is  particularly  appli- 
cable to  the  one-subject  teacher  of  the  secondary  school; 
a  teacher  is  Hkely  to  be  the  more  effective  in  one  field,  if 
he  surveys  his  subject  from  several  distinctive  points  of 
view. 

The  secondary  taacher  in  Germany  and  France,  what- 
ever his  chosen  line  of  study  may  be,  must  show  mas- 
tery for  teaching  purposes  in  at  least  two  additional 
subjects  ;  one  of  the  three  must  always  be  the  vernacu- 
lar ;  and  the  striking  results  attained  in  the  clear  and 
cogent  oral  and  written  utterances  of  their  secondary 
pupils  are  due  to  this  demand  made  on  the  teachers. 
The  plea  urged  in  favor  of  the  one-topic  point  of  view, 
that  no  man  can  excel  in  more  than  one  field  of  activity, 
falls  to  the  ground  before  the  evidence  furnished  by 
German  and  French  teachers.  It  is  a  wholesome  offset 
to  undue  concentration  of  interest  upon  one  subject  to 
be  compelled  to  adjust  oneself  to  Several  topics,  and  to 
the  pupils  concerned  it  is  of  striking  advantage  to  have 
the  same  teacher  correlate  their  experiences  gained  in 
various  subjects ;  it  makes  the  teacher  more  human  in 
the  eyes  of  his  pupils,  if  they  recognize  that  his  mind 
is  open  to  various  interests. 


12  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

It  will  be  natural  that  the  several  subjects  which 
each  teacher  chooses  to  handle  will  group  themselves 
along  certain  accepted  lines  of  kindred  interests ;  the 
historico-linguistic  group,  the  mathematico-scientific 
group,  these  are  the  usual  combinations  ;  but  it  will 
happen  at  times  that  a  linguist  is  a  first-class  mathe- 
matician or  a  keen  student  of  geographical  research, 
that  a  teacher  of  mathematics  has  a  fine  sense  of  lit- 
erary form ;  and  such  combinations  are  particularly 
valuable  in  the  school  life.  , 

The  ability  to  teach  the  vernacular  effectively  would 
seem  for  us  the  first  step  in  the  movement  for  wider 
teaching  interest  on  the  part  of  every  secondary  teacher ; 
the  cooperation  of  every  teacher  in  the  interest  of  good 
English,  a  co5peration  which  is  now  often  sought  in  vain, 
would  be  made  possible.  School  committees  and  super- 
vising officers  ought  to  make  capacity  in  this  direction  a 
"  sine  qua  non  "  ;  the  training  in  English,  even  if  the 
candidate  is  not  in  every  instance  called  upon  to  teach 
the  English  classes,  would  raise  the  standard  of  the 
secondary  school ;  English  should  not  be^  merely  one  of 
the  subjects  of  instruction,  but  the  core  of  the  work. 
This  would  involve  a  wholesome  change,  too,  in  the 
manner  of  presenting  the  subject  of  English  ;  it  should 
be  less  technical,  more  distinctly  cultural. 

A  familiarity  with  at  least  three  subjects  of  the  curric- 
ulum, that  would  enable  the  teacher  to  put  his  abilities 


THE    TEACHER  I3 

in  these  subjects  at  the  disposal  of  the  school,  ought  to 
lead  to  a  teacher's  desire  to  vary  his  teaching  duties ;  it 
should  be  a  distinct  relief  to  pass  from  the  demands  of 
an  exact  science,  mathematics  or  physics,  for  instance,  to 
the  opportunities  of  stimulating  the  aesthetic  or  moral 
sense  which  a  lesson  in  literature  or  in  history  affords. 

For  the  teacher  who  hopes  to  advance  to  a  supervisory 
or  administrative  position,  a  principalship  or  a  superin- 
tendency,  breadth  of  this  kind  seems  almost  a  necessity ; 
to  judge  of  good  performance,  of  sound  teaching  meth- 
ods, to  estimate  at  their  true  worth  the  methods  of  ap- 
proach to  various  subjects,  one  must  have  taught  himself 
in  a  number  of  them.  Absolute  unfamiliarity  with  the 
greater  number  of  subjects  in  the  curriculum  accounts 
for  the  helplessness  of  principals  and  superintendents 
that  tolerates  the  continuance  of  antiquated,  useless 
methods,  that  hesitates  to  accept  methods  adopted 
elsewhere  because  of  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the 
pedagogic  tenets  on  which  they  are  founded.  The 
absolute  dependence  of  principals  on  the  suggestions 
of  modern  language  teachers  whose  work  they  can  only 
superficially  judge  is  a  case  in  point.  Knowledge  of 
subject  matter,  detailed  comprehensive  knowledge  far 
beyond  the  actual  necessities  of  the  secondary  class- 
room, a  knowledge  that  feeds  on  the  desire  for  more 
extended  information,  should  be  one  of  the  prerequi- 
sites of  the  secondary  teacher. 


14  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

Our  present  situation  is  tersely  described  in  the  author- 
itative criticism  of  Dean  Russell ;  most  of  our  teachers 
are  "teachers  with  nothing  to  teach."  ^  We  are  still  far 
from  demanding,  as  we  should,  evidence  of  a  satisfac- 
torily completed  college  course  in  those  subjects  that  the 
candidate  intends  to  teach.  A  demand,  apparently  so 
obvious,  is  ignored  to  a  surprising  extent ;  teachers  who 
have  never  carried  on  mathematical  or  classical  studies 
in  college  are  deemed  worthy  of  teaching  them,  though 
they  have  neglected  them  since  their  own  secondary 
school  days.  And  yet  far  more  should  be  called  for ; 
growth  in  knowledge,  as  the  teacher  pursues  his  call- 
ing, not  accidental  growth,  but  deliberate,  distinctly 
planned  growth. 

The  assumption  that  the  teacher  brings  from  his 
college  experience  the  sum  total  of  desirable  infor- 
mation, and  need  henceforth  devote  himself  only  to 
the  acquisition  of  the  teaching  technique,  is  fatal  to 
his  success.  Every  teacher  of  merit  will  admit  that 
his  initial  intellectual  equipment  at  the  beginning  of 
his  teaching  career  was  but  meager;  it  is  in  the  pro- 
cess of  teaching  that  we  ascertain  promptly  the  frag- 
mentary and  incomplete  character  of  our  knowledge, 
and  find  the  strongest  provocation  to  supplement  and 
strengthen  our  inadequate  attainment.  At  no  stage 
of  his  career  should  the  teacher  cease  to  be  a  learner, 

»  English  Special  Reports,  X,  All-All. 


THE   TEACHER  1 5 

both  in  the  subjects  he  teaches  and  in  the  wider  gen- 
eral interests ;  the  teacher  who  is  intent  only  upon 
the  narrow  confines  of  his  teaching  subjects  does  not 
add  to  his  stature  as  a  teacher ;  he  is  in  danger  of 
degenerating  into  a  clever  craftsman.  Routine,  mas- 
tery in  presentation  and  in  class  management,  he  must 
acquire,  but  they  should  be  dominated  by  his  personal 
ambition  to  grow  intellectually,  or  else  the  technician 
will  supersede  the  genuine  teacher.  This  conviction  of 
the  necessity  for  constant  intellectual  growth  is  not  yet 
generally  held  by  our  teachers,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
strongest  indications  that  the  professional  attitude  is 
not  as  widely  appreciated  as  is  desirable ;  teachers' 
reading  courses,  active  participation  in  the  work  of 
learned  societies  and  of  professional  gatherings,  but, 
above  all,  individual  study  in  some  chosen  field,  or  else 
close  inquiry  into  the  educational  movements  that  are 
developing  at  home  and  abroad,  these  are  the  means 
of  furthering  professional  development. 

The  so-called  teachers'  meeting,  which  is  usually 
limited  to  the  consideration  of  the  routine  necessities  of 
the  school,  might  become  under  the  direction  of  an 
inspiring  principal  or  superintendent  a  valuable  stim- 
ulus to  growth ;  the  consideration  of  far-reaching 
school  problems  in  a  compact  resume,  or  a  surv^ey  of 
new  educational  or  scientific  tendencies  by  one  or  the 
other  member  of  the  teaching  staff,  would  be  a  distinct 


l6  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

gain  as  well  to  the  one  assigned  to  the  task  of  leading 
the  discussion,  as  to  the  whole  teaching  force ;  it  pre- 
supposes a  professional  spirit  in  the  conduct  of  such 
meetings.  It  is  in  well-conducted  teachers'  meetings  of 
this  type  that  supervisory  officers  can  foster  the  profes- 
sional spirit  of  their  junior  colleagues.  The  judgment 
and  appreciation  of  his  fellow  workers  is  quite  as  pre- 
cious to  the  teacher  as  success  in  the  immediate  exercise 
of  his  educational  talent. 

In  the  wide  range  of  subjects  which  appeal  to 
the  modern  man  of  culture  it  is  impossible  for  any 
single  one  to  keep  completely  in  touch  with  all  that 
is  new  and  valuable ;  and  yet,  if  we  are  of  inquir- 
ing minds,  we  should  like  to  hear  of  the  best  that 
is  being  offered  in  other  departments  than  our  own. 
Instead  of  prolonged  faculty  meetings,  let  us  cultivate 
the  art  of  reducing  the  discussions  in  them  to  modest 
compass,  and  devote  the  time  thus  gained  to  resumes 
by  one  or  several  of  the  teachers,  say  of  the  points 
definitely  established  in  some  line  of  physical  inquiry, 
and  the  points  still  in  debate,  or  a  critical  review  of  some 
new  group  of  writers,  or  a  discussion  of  a  burning  issue 
of  the  day  in  the  light  of  economic  or  political  theory. 
Where  could  a  man  or  woman  find  so  conveniently  a 
body  of  appreciative  hearers,  not  especially  trained 
perhaps  in  the  subject  that  appeals  to  him  or  her,  and 
yet  persons  on  an  intellectual  plane  that  enables  them 


THE   TEACHER  1 7 

to  follow  a  clear  presentation  ?  And  how  wonderfully 
would  such  an  occasion  accentuate  the  need  of  clear- 
ness, how  valuable  would  prove  to  a  thoughtful  person 
the  kind  of  criticism,  the  kind  of  inquiry,  that  he  would 
evoke ! 

Professional  recognition,  we  are  convinced,  can  only 
be  secured  by  such  means,  not  by  agitation  after  the 
pattern  of  the  trades-union.  Let  teachers  consider 
that  neither  lawyers  nor  physicians  combine  to  force 
their  claims  upon  an  unwilling  public ;  their  professional 
standards  prohibit  such  undignified  procedure,  and  our 
teachers  do  not  win  respect  professionally  by  proclaim- 
ing themselves  ^^ hired'"  for  their  positions.  The  more 
distinct  the  evidence  of  a  professional  spirit,  the  more 
probable  is  the  recognition  of  teaching  as  a  profession, 
with  those  practical  rewards  that  come  to  the  efficient 
professional  man  or  woman. 

The  need  of  professional  training  for  the  secondary 
teacher  is  coming  to  be  recognized.^  Without  theoretic 
insight,  even  those  specially  endowed  in  intellect  and 
temperament  will  attain  success  only  after  many  fail- 
ures ;  those  of  average  endowment  may  drift  through 
many  wearisome  attempts  into  a  fairly  successful  mode  of 
handling    their    classes,   but    the    uncertainty   of    the 

1  For  college  instructors  as  well  as  for  secondary  teachers ;  cf.  the 
strong  arraignment  of  college  faculties  by  R.  I.  Schuyler,  Educatiotial 
Review,  pp.  191  ff.    Sept.,  1911. 

c 


l8  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

amateurish  spirit  makes  them  easy  victims  to  every 
new  notion,  provided  it  be  presented  with  sufficient 
assurance  and  persuasiveness.  Training  schools  and 
teachers'  colleges  are  beginning  to  offer  opportunities 
for  such  training,  but  as  yet  the  demand  for  such  train- 
ing prior  to  appointment  is  not  generally  enforced  ;  the 
obvious  superiority  of  those  who  have  combined  good 
academic  work  with  sound  professional  training,  and  the 
enlightened  demand  for  such  a  combination  in  some  of 
our  Western  states,  ought  to  convince  those  who  hesi- 
tate to  express  themselves  in  favor  of  the  increased 
requirement.^ 

The  average  secondary  teacher  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  entering  upon  his  work  directly  from  his  own 
student  life,  without  a  reaUzation  of  the  teaching  prob- 
lems involved,  of  his  duties  and  of  his  prerogatives ; 
if  he  has  finally  become  proficient,  it  has  been  at  the 
cost  of  serious  errors,  injurious  for  the  time  being  to 
himself,  and  often  permanently  harmful  to  his  charges. 
In  view  of  the  fund  of  enlightened  experience  that  older 
teachers  have  gradually  accumulated,  it  is  inexcusable 
to  have  our  present  candidate  teachers  repeat  the  errors 
of  former  days  ;  the  body  of  young  teachers  should  be 

1  The  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Seventeen  of  the  N.  E.  A.  on 
"The  Professional  Preparation  of  High  School  Teachers,"  1907,  sets 
forth  excellent  individual  opinions  of  its  contributing  members,  but  is 
distinctly  disappointing  in  its  general  conclusions;  cf.  Educational 
Review,  pp.  311  ff.     Oct.,  1908. 


THE   TEACHER  1 9 

spared  the  distress  of  duplicating  the  blunders  of  their 
predecessors.  It  should  be  the  privilege  of  capable 
teachers  to  shape  by  guidance  and  practical  suggestion 
the  early  steps  of  young  candidates ;  where  attendance 
in  a  professional  school  is  impracticable,  there  should 
be  designated  in  every  school  system  one  or  several 
teachers  to  control  and  direct  these  young  people  in  their 
initial  teaching  experiences.  The  experiment  of  coopera- 
tion between  a  teachers'  college  and  a  public  school  sys- 
tem, such  as  has  been  in  operation  in  Providence,  R.  I.,^ 
is  worthy  of  close  study  and  of  imitation,  and  the  half 
salary  assigned  to  such  candidates  in  the  first  year  is  a 
slight  sacrifice  for  the  practical  advantages  it  secures. 

The  spirit  of  professional  interest  in  the  coming 
generation  of  teachers  must  become  more  marked ;  it 
is  as  much  the  duty  of  a  competent  teacher  to  contrib- 
ute to  the  training  of  young  teachers  as  to  work  success- 
fully with  his  immediate  pupils ;  it  is  this  that  the  critic 
teacher  in  the  normal  school  aims  to  accomplish  for  the 
elementary  teacher,  and  it  should  likewise  be  under- 
taken for  our  secondary  teachers,  to  whom  it  would 
prove  fully  as  helpful. 

The  German  gymnasial  seminary  has  within  the  last 
twenty  years  effected  along  this   line  of   professional 

1  The  arrangement  of  practice  teaching  that  is  offered  to  intending 
teachers  at  Brown  University  is  described  in  Luckey,  Professional 
Training  of  Teachers,  p.  65. 


20  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

training  great  results.  All  candidate  teachers  are  as- 
signed for  expert  guidance  in  small  groups  of  about 
eight  members  to  the  director  and  selected  teachers  of  a 
secondary  school;  the  honor  of  such  an  assignment  is 
highly  prized.^  In  each  seminary  the  errors  in  teach- 
ing, due  to  inexperience  and  a  defective  sense  of  pro- 
portion, are  carefully  corrected ;  evidence  of  hopeless 
incapacity  or  of  temperamental  disqualification  leads  to 
removal  of  unpromising  candidates ;  inaccuracy  in  sub- 
ject matter  is  practically  unknown,  so  stringent  are  the 
demands  in  scholarship ;  and  the  trial  lessons  under 
kindly  but  keen  criticism  are  sufficient  in  number  to 
make  the  young  teacher  after  his  Probejahr  an  efficient 
teacher. 

Our  initial  difficulty  in  this  matter  is  due  to  the 
great  number  of  new  teachers  entering  the  field 
each  year.  In  the  secondary  schools  for  boys  in 
Prussia  with  a  population  of  37  to  38  millions,  not 
more  than  600  to  700  new  secondary  teachers  enter 
the  service  each  year ;  ^  deaths,  retirement  with  pen- 
sion privileges  after  thirty  years  of  service,  occasional 
withdrawals   because  of   ill   health,  the   necessities   of 

lA  detailed  discussion  of  the  German  gymnasial  seminary  follows 
on  pages  35  ff. 

2  The  total  number  of  boys  in  attendance  at  all  the  Prussian  second- 
ary schools  is  220,959,  according  to  the  government  figures  in  1909, 
and  the  entire  number  of  teachers  for  them  is  about  11,000.  [Monat- 
schrift fur  hohere  Schiilcn,  p.  296.     June,  1910.) 


THE    TEACHER  21 

newly  organized  schools  to  meet  the  growth  in  popula- 
tion, account  for  this  number ;  the  cases  of  withdrawal 
into  another  occupation  are  practically  negligible.  The 
teachers  are  members  of  a  profession  in  which  they  re- 
main continuously,  unless  disabled,  for  thirty  years ; 
hence  it  is  possible  to  provide  fully  for  the  training 
of  the  new  teachers  in  seventy  to  eighty  gymnasial 
seminaries.  The  recent  legislation  for  the  secondary 
girls'  schools  will  call  for  an  increase  in  the  permanent 
secondary  teaching  force ;  it  will  approximately  double 
this  number,  but  the  number  of  new  teachers  annually 
appointed  will  still  be  a  relatively  small  one. 

With  our  thousands  of  new  teachers  entering  the 
field  each  year,  many  of  them  without  the  intention 
of  continuing  in  the  work  as  a  profession,  the  adop- 
tion of  the  system  of  the  gymnasial  seminary  would 
be  extremely  difficult ;  the  number  of  principals  capa- 
ble of  directing  and  willing  to  direct  these  young  teach- 
ers might  not  easily  be  secured ;  besides,  the  candidates 
themselves  would  be  slow  to  recognize  that  their  com- 
pensation during  the  first  or  trial  year  could  only  be 
nominal ;  on  the  other  hand,  their  growth  in  efficiency 
ought  to  increase  their  earning  power  rapidly.  The 
proper  place  to  initiate  an  approach  to  this  system 
would  be  in  the  large  school  systems ;  with  the  pro- 
viso, however,  that  the  supervision  should  not  be  per- 
functory ;  definite  allotment  of  time  to  the  supervising 


22  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

officers  of  the  seminary  for  this  specific  purpose  would 
be  an  essential.^ 

Among  the  many  changes  that  such  intelHgent  su- 
pervisory guidance  would  bring  about,  one  of  the  most 
important  would  be  a  truer  appreciation  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  elementary  or  initial  work  in  each  subject. 
It  is  characteristic  of  most  of  our  teachers  that  their 
ambition  is  always  directed  toward  instruction  in  the 
higher  classes  of  the  secondary  school ;  the  recent  col- 
lege graduate  prefers  to  teach  Vergil  and  Cicero  rather 
than  first-year  Latin,  plane  and  solid  geometry  rather 
than  the  first  stages  of  algebra ;  he  looks  upon  an  as- 
signment to  first-year  work  as  unattractive  drudgery, 
and  strives  to  be  emancipated  from  it  at  as  early  a  day 
as  possible ;  the  teacher  of  several  years'  experience  is 
apt  to  regard  assignment  to  first-year  work  in  Latin  or 
mathematics  as  a  slight.  Because,  therefore,  of  the  in- 
experience of  the  tyro  and  the  reluctance  of  the  experi- 
enced teacher,  the  most  delicate  and  crucial  work  in  the 
secondary  school,  that  of  the  first  year,  is  poorly  carried 
out. 

This   first-year  work  is  distinctly  of  the  utmost  im- 

1  Brown,  J.  F.,  The  Trainutg  of  Teachers  for  Secondary  Schools,  Mac- 
millan,  1911,  recognizes  the  great  differences  between  our  conditions 
and  those  of  Prussia ;  he  does  not,  however,  despair  of  incorporating 
some  of  the  most  important  features  of  the  German  system  into  our 
training  system ;  his  Chapter  XI,  which  is  essentially  constructive,  is 
worthy  of  special  study. 


THE   TEACHER  23 

portance,  and  it  should  claim  the  highest  teaching 
talent  of  the  school ;  to  the  prevalence  of  inexperienced 
teachers  at  this  stage  is  due,  more  than  to  any  other 
cause,  the  discouragement  and  lapse  of  interest  of  our 
first-year  high  school  pupils.  It  has  been  a  prolific 
source  of  difficulties  in  our  high  schools  that  we  have 
not  broken  with  this  misconception  in  regard  to  the 
first  year's  work.  We  have  not  taken  into  considera- 
tion in  the  arrangement  of  the  first  year  that  it  calls 
for  something  very  much  more  than  a  proportional  ac- 
quisition of  the  four  years'  work ;  it  involves  a  period 
of  adjustment,  which  as  an  educational  factor  must 
claim  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  time.  In  this 
adjustment  to  a  new  phase  of  intellectual  experience,  in 
the  transition  from  the  exercise  of  the  mnemonic  faculty 
to  that  of  reasoning  ability,  the  art  of  the  teacher  finds 
its  great  opportunity  ;  it  is  in  his  power  to  transfigure 
the  tiresome  features  inseparable  from  all  fundamental 
work.  The  textbook  may  group  the  successive  stages 
of  advance  in  logical  development,  but  the  printed  page 
is  inflexible ;  it  does  not  suggest  variety  in  the  manner 
of  progress.  The  mental  status  of  the  class,  which  can 
never  be  definitely  measured  in  advance,  suggests  to 
the  teacher  various  expedients,  possible  excursions  from 
the  usual  path,  to  insure  correct  lines  of  procedure ; 
convention,  tradition,  must  give  way  to  the  exigencies 
of  a  peculiar  condition. 


24  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

The  first-year  high  school  work  ^  makes  the  greatest 
demands  on  the  teacher's  mental  and  moral  attitude; 
here,  primarily,  we  need  his  enthusiasm,  his  love  of  im- 
parting, his  judgment  and  good  sense  to  secure  the  elastic 
rebound  in  class-activity.^  The  teacher's  problem  is  this : 
how  can  he  weld  into  a  homogeneous  school  organization 
the  composite  body,  coming  from  various  influences  in 
the  elementary  schools  ?  Elementary  education,  even  if 
identical  in  quantity,  is  likely  to  differ  in  quality ;  hence 
the  value  of  solidarity  at  this  point,  of  a  common  training 
in  processes  of  thought  and  in  habits  of  study.  For  this 
process  of  welding,  of  unification  in  new  mental  habits, 
it  is  wise  to  avoid  differentiation  in  the  first  year's  work  ; 
the  trend  toward  individualism  it  is  desirable  to  inhibit, 
until  the  training  of  the  first  year  has  established  the 
new  method  of  reasoning  procedure.  A  full  apprecia- 
tion of  freedom  (and  this  applies  to  intellectual  as  well 
as  to  poUtical  freedom)  does  not  result  spontaneously ; 
pupils  as  well  as  adults  cannot  exercise  with  judgment 
a  freedom  whose  responsibilities  they  have  not  grad- 
ually learned  to  appreciate.  As  in  the  political  sphere, 
so  in  education,  absence  of  the  guiding  hand  is  likely 
to  breed  license,  where  we  hope  for  freedom. 

Many  of  our  best  schools,  appreciating  the  nature  of  the 

1  Report  Commissioner  Education,  p.  482.    Washington,  1893. 

2  Laurie,   S.  S.,  The  Training  of  Teachers,  p.  60.     Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Press,  1901. 


THE   TEACHER  25 

transition,  defer  to  the  end  of  the  first  year  all  attempts 
at  differentiation  of  courses.  Even  a  single  year  in  Latin, 
under  the  instruction  of  an  inspiring  teacher,  should 
prove  of  great  gain  to  our  English-speaking  pupils  ;  to 
recognize  the  significance  of  its  highly  inflectional  char- 
acter is  at  once  a  training  in  precision,  in  thought,  and 
a  valuable  introduction  to  all  foreign  language  study. 
The  deliberation  with  which  perforce  we  must  proceed 
to  unravel  the  meaning  of  a  Latin  sentence  is  a  new 
and  striking  experience,  and  of  similar  value  is  the  con- 
sideration of  the  suggestive  vocabulary  in  which  the 
transition  from  the  literal  significance  of  terms  to  their 
figurative  application  is  more  easily  traced  than  when 
these  same  terms  have  been  dulled  to  current  coin. 
The  new  attitude  toward  study  is  the  goal  to  be  estab- 
lished in  the  first  year  ;  to  this  goal  everything  else 
should  be  subsidiary,  even  the  amount  of  specific  infor- 
mation secured  in  a  number  of  subjects.  Incidentally 
to  the  pursuit  of  this  goal  there  will  dawn  upon  the 
pupil  under  the  right  kind  of  teacher,  what  the  various 
subjects  may  offer  him  in  intellectual  satisfaction.  This 
opening  of  vistas  which  should  be  both  duty  and  pleas- 
ure of  the  high  school  teacher  has  not  received  its  due 
attention ;  to  penetrate  through  the  necessary  and  una- 
voidable routine  of  first-year  subjects  to  glimpses  of 
what  is  in  store  beyond,  would  often  change  monotony 
and  discouragement  into  bright  anticipation.     It  is  only 


26  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

from  the  fullness  of  knowledge,  from  the  glow  of  a  gen- 
erous soul,  that  this  illumination  of  the  initial  stages  of 
the  work  can  issue. 

Here  again,  the  example  of  the  German  schools  is 
significant ;  in  every  subject  the  teacher  throughout  his 
career  may  be  assigned,  and  loves  to  be  assigned,  to  the 
lowest  as  well  as  the  higher  classes ;  if  we  remember 
that  in  the  German  secondary  school  we  have  a  nine- 
year  course,  this  becomes  all  the  more  striking.  An 
examination  of  the  teachers'  schedule  in  any  German 
secondary  school  will  show  the  ordinarius  (class  teacher) 
of  Prima,  the  highest  class,  assigned  for  a  certain  num- 
ber of  periods  per  week  to  some  of  the  lowest  classes, 
and  in  some  of  the  very  best  schools  the  Direktor  (who 
always  teaches)  will  himself  take  the  beginners'  class, 
say  in  French,  in  the  first  of  their  nine  years,  meet  them 
again  regularly  as  a  class  after  a  lapse  of  four  years, 
and  finally  shape  their  advanced  work  in  the  same  sub- 
ject in  the  ninth  year  of  the  curriculum.  What  an 
advantage  this,  to  lay  the  foundations  accurately,  to 
gauge  progress  of  the  pupils  and  efficiency  of  cooper- 
ating teachers  during  the  intervening  years,  and  to 
measure  in  its  final  stage  the  value  of  an  educational 
process ! 

The  claim  that  it  is  dull  and  uninteresting  to  initiate 
pupils  in  the  elements  of  a  subject  betrays  a  lack 
of   teaching  insight.      The   primary   teacher   finds   in- 


THE   TEACHER  2^ 

spiration  in  her  simple  work ;  she  notes  the  steady  ex- 
pansion of  intelligence  in  her  little  pupils,  and  because 
of  her  quiet  devotion  to  her  work  and  enjoyment  of  her 
experiences,  she  attains  marked  success.  It  is  not  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  the  initial  work  in  a  subject 
determines  definitely  the  success  or  non-success  of  the 
pupils ;  the  art  of  teaching  is  at  its  highest  in  this  foun- 
dation work.  And  in  college  work,  too,  some  of  the 
greatest  teachers,  men  who  are  eminent  in  research 
work,  willingly  undertake  the  introductory  course  in 
their  subject,  convinced  that  thus  and  only  thus  do  they 
insure  correct  fundamental  conceptions. 

The  teacher  of  long  and  tried  experience,  who  realizes 
what  gaps  ineffective  teaching  at  the  early  stage  leaves 
in  the  minds  of  the  pupils,  should  take  pride  in  claim- 
ing an  opportunity  for  this  introductory  work;  the 
richness  of  his  experience  and  the  abundance  of  his  col- 
lateral information  ought  to  fill  it  with  substance,  with 
promising  outlook. 

When  every  teacher  may  be  called  upon  to  teach  his 
subject  and  every  stage  of  his  subject,  throughout  the 
course,  there  will  develop  a  system  of  cooperation 
that  at  present  does  not  obtain.  Even  in  a  four-year 
high  school  course  there  exists  too  frequently  a  hierarchy 
of  the  higher  and  the  lower  teachers  in  the  system,  and 
the  teacher  of  the  higher  classes  is  apt  to  thrust  the  blame 
for  ineffective  attainment  of  the  student  body  upon  the 


28  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

first  and  second  year  teacher  ;  this  would  largely  dis- 
appear under  the  suggested  change.  How  often  will  a 
teacher  build  up  his  presentation  of  a  subject  on  the 
assumption  of  a  certain  quota  of  knowledge  by  the  class, 
only  to  find  that  his  effort  has  completely  miscarried 
because  he  was  building  on  quicksand!  It  is  vain  in 
such  situations  to  indulge  in  recriminations  ;  the  teacher 
is  himself  at  fault ;  he  has  no  right  to  take  for  granted 
what  he  has  not  assured  himself  of ;  he  must  know  what 
his  pupils  actually  do  possess  of  available  information 
in  a  given  subject.  Still  less  excusable,  and  not  less 
frequent,  is  the  teacher's  admission  :  "  I  thought  I  had 
discussed  this  subject  with  you  before  ;  I  see  I  am  mis- 
taken." Such  a  lapse  'ought  to  be  impossible ;  it  is  the 
teacher's  duty  to  keep  such  a  record  of  his  daily  work 
with  every  class  that  in  his  preparation  for  a  lesson  he 
can  make  sure  of  every  point  covered  and  realize  what 
has  remained  untouched. 

We  need  a  much  closer  adjustment  in  the  various 
stages  of  the  work  than  is  currently  undertaken ;  a 
mechanical  distribution  of  the  subject  matter  of  instruc- 
tion for  the  several  years  does  not  suffice.  No  two 
successive  first-year  classes  are  identical  in  attainment, 
in  eagerness  ;  a  class  that  advances  rather  slowly  in  a 
given  year  or  in  a  given  subject  may  develop  quite 
rapidly  at  a  later  stage,  if  its  peculiarities  are  recognized 
and  made  use  of ;  it  is  here  that  a  very  intimate  inter- 


THE    TEACHER  29 

change  of  information  between  the  teachers  becomes 
valuable. 

The  class  book  as  a  record  of  daily  assignments, 
of  daily  advance  in  every  subject,  is  a  very  marked 
feature  of  every  German  classroom ;  its  value  to  the 
principal,  the  individual  teacher,  and  to  the  student 
body  is  so  patent  that  a  close  study  of  its  serviceable- 
ness  may  be  recommended  to  our  schools.  The  daily 
record,  made  by  each  teacher  over  his  own  signature, 
immediately  upon  the  completion  of  a  teaching  period,  is 
scanned  by  every  other  teacher  of  the  same  class ;  it 
makes  for  reasonable  assignment,  for  reasonable  ad- 
vance, insures  against  excessive  pressure  by  an  individ- 
ual teacher,  discloses  a  complete  picture  of  the  home 
work  expected,  of  the  class  work  that  has  been  com- 
pleted ;  it  stands  for  (fonscientious  coordination  of  each 
teacher  with  his  colleagues  along  the  lines  of  procedure 
that  have  been  adopted  for  each  class.  The  practice  of 
the  German  school,  interpreted  to  incipient  teachers  by 
a  sympathetic  director  and  his  experienced  colleagues, 
establishes  for  these  candidates  standards  whose  tangible 
excellence  they  recognize ;  nothing  could  adequately 
replace  for  them  the  personal  touch  of  confidential 
relations. 

In  addition,  however,  they  can  turn  for  guidance 
to  the  publication  of  model  lessons  in  the  various  sub- 
jects  of    the    secondary   curriculum.      In    material    of 


30  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

this  kind  our  educational  literature  is  quite  barren,^ 
while  German  educational  publications  for  several  gen- 
erations have  furnished  numerous  examples.  In  the 
Lehrproben  und  Lehrgange,  published  at  Halle  since 
1885,  there  may  be  found  a  great  variety  of  model 
lessons  in  almost  every  subject  of  the  secondary  field, 
lessons  submitted  by  acknowledged  leaders  in  the  teach- 
ing field  ;  the  Lehrproben  constitute  a  great  clearing 
house  of  experiences  and  new  devices.  The  model 
lesson  of  the  German  schools  sets  forth  the  general 
aims  of  a  given  topic  or  series  of  topics  and  the  pro- 
cedure in  detail ;  it  varies  widely  according  to  its  pur- 
pose. It  may  be  an  exposition  of  new  subject  matter, 
or  an  attempt  to  work  out  a  series  of  thoughts  induc- 
tively or  deductively,  or  a  comprehensive  r4sum6  of 
previously  acquired  information.  The  scheme  of  the 
model  lesson,  worked  out  in  detail  in  advance,  or 
recorded  stenographically  in  its  progress  before  the 
class,  is  submitted  through  publication  to  the  judgment 
of  fellow-teachers ;  it  often  furnishes  the  clew  to  new 
lines  of  procedure,  and  is  a  measure  both  of  the  teacher's 
point  of  view  and  of  the  proficiency  developed  in  his 
class. 

The   study    of   such  model   lessons  suggests  to  the 
ambitious  young  teacher  a  comparison    with  his   own 

*  This  criticism  does  not  apply  to  the  elementary  school ;  cf.  Mc- 
Murry,   The  Method  0/ the  Recitation,  Chapters  II,  XI,  XIV. 


THE   TEACHER  3 1 

teaching  processes.  Let  him  note  how  definitely  the 
standard  of  previous  attainment  of  the  class  is  measured, 
with  what  skill  an  anticipation  of  new  development  in 
the  subject  matter  is  aroused,  how  the  activities  of  the 
whole  class  are  invoked  for  the  mastery  of  difficulties, 
by  what  varieties  of  legitimate  device  attention,  conscious 
and  unconscious,  is  secured,  how  the  clearness  of  exposi- 
tion removes  obscurity  and  hesitation,  how  the  conquest 
of  the  individual's  doubts  is  accomplished  without  sacri- 
fice of  class  progress.  Let  him  realize  how  delicate  the 
judgment  that  calls  a  halt  at  a  given  stage  of  the  lesson 
for  the  purposes  of  a  summary,  or  brings  into  play  the 
subsidiary  appliances  of  charts,  maps,  or  other  illustra- 
tive material,  —  how  timely  the  transition  from  the 
teacher's  leadership  and  initiative  to  the  assumption  of 
responsibility  by  the  class,  when  it  records  the  net 
results  of  the  points  gained,  —  and  he  will  find  in  such  a 
lesson  a  wealth  of  suggestiveness  in  educational  possi- 
bilities. 

These  model  lessons  illustrate  among  other  things 
the  tendency  to  correlate  advanced  work  with  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  same  work,  and  to  interweave  the 
information  gained  in  other  subjects;  the  teacher's 
acquaintance  with  the  pupils'  progress  in  a  number  of 
subjects  enables  him  to  reenforce  the  results  of  previous 
instruction.  Thus,  the  etymological  and  idiomatic 
peculiarities   in   several   languages   are   developed    on 


32  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

lines  of  analogy  and  divergence ;  they  need  not  be 
repeated  in  wearisome  detail  if  they  have  already 
become  familiar  in  the  study  of  ojie  language ;  a  wise 
economy  promotes  efficiency,  and  one  of  the  most 
valuable  results  of  these  published  lessons  lies  in  their 
avoidance  of  needless  repetition.  In  much  that  we 
teach  there  is  a  substantial  repetition  of  what  the  pupil 
has  already  acquired  under  a  different  guise ;  we 
have  been  but  too  apt  to  magnify  rather  than  minimize 
the  burden  of  intellectual  acquisition.  How  much 
might  we  gain  in  time  and  economy  of  effort  if  we  used 
correlation  more  consciously,  if  each  teacher  aimed 
deliberately  to  present  in  related  subjects  the  obvious 
application  of  the  same  principle !  To  how  many 
pupils  is  it  made  clear,  for  instance,  that  the  principle 
of  the  square  of  the  sum  of  two  quantities  is  identical 
in  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  geometry  .''  A  new  arrange- 
ment, a  group  of  facts  viewed  through  a  new  facet, 
enlarges  the  pupils'  knowledge  without  mere  reitera- 
tion. 

Again,  there  is  much  to  be  accomplished  in  gauging 
the  relative  value  of  rule  and  exception.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  study  the  changed  attitude  of  the  Germans  in 
this  respect ;  in  all  their  recent  school  publications,  as 
well  as  in  the  official  programs  of  work,  they  guard 
against  a  possible  distortion  of  values  in  this  respect. 
We  often  obscure  these  relations  in  the  minds  of  our 


THE   TEACHER  33 

pupils  by  unwise,  indiscriminating  emphasis  that  some- 
times makes  the  exception  loom  up  more  striking  than 
the  ntle  which  stands  for  recurrent,  prevailing  usage. 
Trusting  to  the  frequency  of  occurrence  of  the  normal 
practice  which  the  pupil  will  meet,  we  gather  little 
material  to  establish  it ;  our  efforts  are  concentrated 
on  the  departures  from  the  norm.  The  pupil,  equally 
unfamiliar  with  both  forms  of  usage,  takes  his  cue  from 
the  degree  of  emphasis  expressed  for  the  one  or  the 
other  form,  and  is  apt  to  mistake  that  which  is  more 
abundantly  illustrated  as  the  standard.  It  is  one  thing 
to  establish  for  practical  purposes  current  practice,  an- 
other to  interpret  (but  only  for  considerably  advanced 
students)  the  very  interesting  survivals  which  the  so- 
called  exceptions  often  represent. 

An  explanation  of  our  lack  of  model  lessons  in 
secondary  school  subjects  it  is  not  difficult  to  find.  We 
have  been  enthralled  by  the  authority  of  the  textbook ; 
in  consequence  there  has  been  little  inducement  to 
work  out  such  schemes  of  independent  work.  But 
with  the  emancipation  of  our  best  teachers  from  the 
trammels  of  the  textbook,  this  need  will  grow;  in 
mathematics  and  science  it  is  even  now  carried  out, 
and  it  is  not  difficult  to  realize  its  value  in  the  teach- 
ing of  history  and  geography,  and  in  developing  an 
understanding  and  appreciation  of  hterature  in  the 
vernacular. 


34  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

2.    Professional  preparation. 

The  professional  preparation  of  the  teacher  should 
embrace  a  number  of  divergent  considerations,  on  the 
nature  and  purposes  of  education,  the  growth  and  re- 
sponsiveness of  the  pupil,  the  serviceability  of  certain 
subjects  to  the  attainment  of  certain  ends.^  What  he 
requires  as  preliminary  to  successful  prosecution  of  his 
work  is  theoretical  and  practical  guidance  as  to  the 
management  of  the  classroom,  the  conduct  of  the  class 
exercise,  and  the  stimulation  of  mental  activity  in  the 
pupils.  This  theoretical  and  practical  work  will  never 
prove  effective  if  its  precepts  are  not  based  on  actual 
teaching  experience.  Both  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
teachers  whose  knowledge  of  these  two  sides  has  been 
developed  in  actual  contact  with  the  school ;  this  re- 
quires no  special  argument  in  the  case  of  the  practical 
work,  but  on  the  theoretical  side  too  it  may  be  said  that 
the  applicability  of  doctrine  to  the  needs  of  the  class- 
room is  best  measured  by  an  expert  who  is  actually  en- 
gaged  in   teaching.     The   abstractions   of   educational 

»  In  England,  as  in  the  United  States,  despite  the  efforts  of  many 
thoughtful  teachers,  there  still  prevails  a  reluctance  to  recognize  the 
need  of  professional  training. 

To  assert  (Report  of  Birmingham  Conference  on  Training  of  Second- 
ary Teachers,  London  Joum.  Edtuation,  p.  331.  May,  1904)  that  the 
traditions  of  teachers  of  inspiring  personality,  a  kind  of  generalized  ex- 
perience, are  better  than  specific  theoretical  knowledge,  embodies  a 
considerable  element  of  conceit. 


THE   TEACHER  35 

doctrine,  the  inferences  that  may  be  drawn  from  the 
history  of  past  educational  efforts,  may  prove  useless  or 
misleading,  unless  tempered  by  knowledge  of  the  use 
that  class  experience  may  make  of  them. 

Even  Germany  was  formerly  committed  to  our  theory 
that  in  the  case  of  the  secondary  teacher  knowledge 
of  subject  matter  alone  insured  good  teaching;  it  has 
abandoned  this  fatal  misconception,  and  has  developed 
within  the  last  twenty  years  a  most  successful  system 
of  professional  preparation.  It  has  pronounced  defi- 
nitely against  mere  university  instruction  in  educa- 
tional doctrine  and  educational  history.^ 

In  its  gvmnasial  seminaries  which  are  now  the  recog- 
nized means  of  training  secondary  teachers,  the  theoreti- 
cal side  of  teaching  is  intrusted  to  the  carefully  selected 
heads  of  secondary  schools.  These  men,  acknowledged 
as  eminent  teachers  and  as  successful  expositors  of  educa- 
tional theory  in  their  practical  teaching,  guide  the  young 
aspirants  in  the  teaching  field  through  such  a  survey  of 
educational  principles  as  applies  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
schoolroom.     Their  own  teaching  and  that  of  expert 

1  1.  P.  Voss  (a Norwegian).  Diep'ddagogische  Vorbildungzumhoheren 
Lehramt.  Halle,  1889.  Voss  was  sent  by  the  Norwegian 
government  to  study  the  German  system. 

2.  W.  Fries,  Die  wissenschaftliche  und praktische  Vorbildungfur  das 

hohere  Lehramt,  2d  ed.     Munich,  1910. 

3.  Langlois,  La  Preparation  Professionelle  a  r e^iseignement  secondaire. 

Paris,  1902. 

4.  Yit^,  Das  padagogische  Seminar.     Munich,  1908. 


36^  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

associates  specially  designated  for  this  work,  is  recog- 
nized as  an  embodiment  of  the  best  educational  doctrine 
in  actual  teaching ;  in  consequence,  the  aspirant  has  oc- 
casion to  witness  at  once  the  practical  forms  which  the 
application  of  educational  doctrine  assumes ;  the  indi- 
viduality of  each  director  modifies  doctrine  in  its  applica- 
tion to  practice,  and  introduces  the  element  of  flexibility 
into  the  influence  of  the  gymnasial  seminary. 

A  current  criticism  of  the  German  school  system  that  it 
is  inflexible,  that  it  impairs  the  individuality  of  the  teacher, 
is  disproved  by  the  history  of  these  seminaries  ;  students 
of  the  official  utterances  of  the  Prussian  Ministry  of  In- 
struction would  change  their  critical  attitude,  if  they 
followed  closely  the  experiences  of  the  seminaries.  It 
is  left  entirely  with  the  director  of  each  seminary  to 
shape  according  to  his  personal  convictions  the  training 
of  his  candidate  teachers,  and  the  government  specifically 
acknowledges  the  value  of  freedom  in  experimentation.^ 
Contact  with  a  number  of  these  seminaries  reveals  the 
variety  in  method  of  guidance  which  exists  in  different 
seminaries ;  the  one  director  proceeds  from  a  philo- 
sophic discussion  of  principles  to  the  conditions  of 
practice,  the  other  develops  in  great  detail  the  require- 
ments of  practice  before  any  attempt  at  formulation  of 
principles  is  made.     The  records  of  procedure  at  the 

1  Lexis,  Die  hohereti  Lehranstalten^  p.  25.  Publ.  for  the  St.  Louis  Ex- 
position, 1904. 


THE   TEACHER  37 

various  seminaries  are  carefully  kept,  and  are  frequently 
interchanged  for  purposes  of  comparison.  It  may  be 
assumed  that  gradually  a  consensus  of  opinion  will 
unite  upon  the  most  effective  method  of  conducting 
these  institutions ;  the  authorities  distinctly  disclaim 
preconceived  notions  ;  they  look  upon  these  seminaries 
as  so  many  laboratories  of  independent  research.  The 
test  of  excellence  will  determine  eventually  the  merit  of 
divergent  systems  of  approach,  but  because  of  the  value 
of  personality  in  the  director  and  his  associates  there 
will  never  be  a  leveling  to  one  code  of  procedure. ^ 

In  Dr.  J.  F.  Brown's  book.  The  Trainmg  of  Teachers 
for  Secondary  Schools,  there  is  available  in  English  the 
most  recent  exposition  of  the  system  of  the  gymna- 
sial  seminary ;  his  recorded  observations  were  made  in 
the  Franckesche  Stiftungen  at  Halle  on  the  Saale 
(Prussia),  and  are  typical  of  the  best  that  German  ed- 
ucational theory  has  thus  far  elaborated. ^  The  group 
of  schools  at  Halle  is  unique,  because  an  ancient  en- 
dowment (over  two  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since 
its  inception)  affords  under  one  administrative  head  a 
number  of  types  of  elementary  and  secondary  schools, 
a  gymnasium,  a  Realgymnasium,  a  girls'  school,  an  or- 

1  A  particularly  sympathetic  study  of  the  various  types  of  German 
gymnasia!  seminaries  appears  in  Langlois,  I.e. 

2  The  gymnasial  seminary  at  Halle  was  initiated  in  its  present  form 
by  Frick  in  1881  under  the  old  name  of  Seminarium  prasceptorum ;  of. 
Fries,  Die  unssenschaftliche  Vorbildung,  etc.,  p.  70. 


38  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

phan  asylum,  an  elementary  school,  a  boarding  school. 
The  two  directors  who  have  successively  given  it  its 
present  prestige,  Dr.  Otto  Frick  and  Dr.  Wilhelm 
Fries,  have  elaborated  a  procedure  that  has  been  ac- 
cepted in  the  main  by  the  government  as  the  standard 
of  all  gymnasial  seminaries.  It  should  be  stated  that 
with  the  Halle  group  the  gymnasial  seminary  at  Gies- 
sen,  created  about  the  same  time  by  Dr.  Hermann 
Schiller,  served  as  a  prototype  of  the  present  day 
gymnasial  seminaries,  as  they  have  been  developed 
with  governmental  approval.  Schiller,  however,  per- 
mitted and  encouraged  larger  groups  of  candidate 
teachers ;  his  classes  often  numbered  from  twenty-five 
to  thirty.  This  scheme  of  the  larger  class  has  been 
completely  abandoned  in  favor  of  the  smaller  group 
(of  six  to  eight  candidates)  because  of  the  more  inti- 
mate personal  contact  it  allows ;  the  close  personal 
direction  has  been  recognized  as  fundamental  to  the 
success  of  the  scheme.  The  conspicuous  advantage 
of  the  seminary  in  the  Franckesche  Stiftungen  over 
all  others  rests  however  in  the  advantage  offered  to 
the  candidates  to  observe  constantly  in  the  several 
types  of  schools,  and  to  compare  the  applicability  of 
method  to  these  different  schools.  It  is  from  Halle 
in  particular  that  issues  the  doctrine  of  homogeneity 
in  principle  between  elementary  and  secondary  school 
practice. 


THE   TEACHER  39 

As  with  US  in  America  the  German  elementary  school 
had  elaborated  in  its  practice  the  intelligent  application  of 
the  Herbartian  Formalstufen ;  the  secondary  schools  of 
Germany  had  rejected  as  useless  this  Herbartian  doctrine, 
until  the  directors  at  Halle  pointed  out  its  value,  with  nec- 
essary modifications,  for  the  higher  schools.  The  motto 
of  the  gymnasial  seminary  has  been  formulated  by  one  of 
its  great  leaders  in  the  phrase  :  "  Suchen  und  Versuchen  " 
(Reflection  and  Trial).  It  represents  very  happily  the 
aim  of  all  present-day  German  teaching  as  well  as  of 
its  training  courses.  In  view  of  the  acknowledged  ex- 
cellence in  substance  and  in  method  of  the  German 
school  system  there  is  a  profound  suggestiveness  to  us 
in  this  motto.  More  than  ever  before  are  the  Ger- 
man secondary  schools  engaged  in  reflection  on  their 
processes,  and  in  trial  of  improved  methods.  Without 
sacrificing  the  unique  quality  of  their  previous  attain- 
ments in  the  classics,  in  mathematics,  in  history  and 
modern  languages,  they  are  collecting  from  their  own 
experiences  and  from  observation  of  efforts  elsewhere 
means  of  heightening  the  effectiveness  and  the  econ- 
omy of  their  teaching.  Their  teachers  continue  to  be 
restless  searchers  for  eflficiency  from  the  day  they  enter 
upon  their  career  as  candidate  teachers  until  they  re- 
tire from  service ;  they  are  ready  to  give  of  their  best 
insight  for  the  sake  of  the  general  cause,  and  freely 
adopt  what  others   have  produced,  if   it  conduces   to 


40  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

efficiency  in  the  schools.  Such  teachers,  furthermore, 
cannot  be  the  slaves  to  unalterable  prescription  that 
some  would  stamp  them ;  within  the  range  of  sound, 
scholarly  work  (and  of  other  work  the  Germans  have 
no  knowledge)  there  is  at  least  as  great  variety  and 
flexibility  as  in  our  school  courses,  less  mechanical  con- 
formity, because  of  individual  confidence  in  the  power 
to  produce  definite  results. 

The  distinguishing  features  of  these  seminaries  are 
the  following  :  The  candidates  have  attained  a  homoge- 
neous equipment  in  subject  matter;  that  is  guaranteed 
by  the  successful  state  examination  ^  which  precedes 
their  enrollment  as  members  of  the  seminary.  A  limited 
number,  five  to  eight,  are  accepted  as  candidates  in 
each  seminary ;  this  establishes  an  intimate  personal 
acquaintance  of  the  director  and  his  staff  with  each 
one  of  them,  with  their  personal  peculiarities,  their  so- 
cial quaUfications,  their  intellectual  and  moral  attitude. 
It  secures  a  very  close  relation  between  the  candidates 
themselves;  they  are  accepted  as  junior  members  of 
the  teaching  family,  are  considered  the  heirs  as  it  were 
of  the  present  generation  of  teachers.  There  is  no 
doubt  of  their  intention  to  attach  themselves  perma- 
nently to  the  profession ;  it  is  highly  honored  in  the 
social  scale,  fairly  well  remunerated  (better  than  with 
us),  and   leads    up    to  a   pension  for  faithful  service. 

1  Brown,  J.  F.,  /..-.,  p.  194.     Fries,  W.,  I.e.,  pp.  1-11. 


THE   TEACHER  4I 

They  breathe  the  professional  atmosphere  in  their  in- 
timate contact  with  the  teachers  in  service ;  they  are 
initiated  into  the  problems  and  the  trials  of  the  class- 
room ;  they  are  able  to  measure  their  own  first  efforts 
by  comparison  with  the  performance  of  tried  and  rec- 
ognized teachers ;  they  are  invited  to  question  these 
teachers  in  daily  intercourse  regarding  the  details  of 
class  instruction,  as  they  witness  it. 

The  majority  of  the  teaching  staff  are  men  of  acknowl- 
edged scholarship,  and  the  candidates  realize  the  possi- 
bility of  combining  scholarly  aspiration  with  practical 
teaching  power;  they  learn  to  appreciate  the  value  of 
continued  scholarly  endeavor  amid  the  routine  of  daily 
exposition  ;  they  note  that  successful  adherence  to  a  pre- 
scribed line  of  advance  does  not  preclude  the  maintenance 
of  individuality  and  originality.  They  are  subjected  to 
incisive  criticism,  but  it  is  tempered  by  a  kindly  attitude, 
for  the  leaders  of  the  seminary  aim  to  be  helpful  guides, 
pointing  out  the  blemishes  that  arise  from  inexperience 
and  helplessness.  On  the  other  hand  these  leaders  are 
in  a  position  to  eliminate  from  the  profession  those  who 
are  manifestly  incapable  of  becoming  effective  teachers, 
and  here  too  lies  one  of  their  greatest  services  to  the 
individual  concerned  as  well  as  to  the  state.  More 
important  than  all,  these  young  men  learn  to  appreciate 
the  significance  of  cooperative  effort  to  the  scholar  as 
well  as  to  the  teacher ;  they  see  the  most  accomplished 


42  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

and  experienced  teachers  (often  the  director  himself) 
carry  out  with  skill  and  enthusiasm  the  instruction  in 
the  rudiments  of  each  subject,  enriching  the  content 
from  the  fullness  of  their  own  knowledge,  and  they  are 
in  a  position  to  observe  the  value  of  teaching  experi- 
ence at  the  most  crucial  point  in  the  course,  when  the 
elements  of  a  new  subject  are  to  be  taught. 

It  would  be  of  the  greatest  service  to  our  American 
teachers  if  they  could  gain  from  personal  observation  an 
insight  into  the  Prussian  Gymnasial  Seminary.  No  other 
feature  of  the  Prussian  school  system  gives  promise  of 
greater  value ;  and  it  is  characteristic  of  the  spirit  that 
permeates  them  that  properly  accredited  teachers  ex- 
perience Uttle  difficulty  in  securing  an  invitation  to 
follow  their  work.  French,  Norwegian,  and  English 
students  of  secondary  education  speak  with  equal  en- 
thusiasm of  the  sympathetic  spirit  that  prevails  in  these 
model  training  schools.^ 

The  system  of  exchange  teachers  between  Prussia 
and  the  United  States,  initiated  by  the  Carnegie  Foun- 
dation, furnishes  to  our  most  promising  teachers  oppor- 

1  Striking  appreciations  of  the  method  pursued  in  the  Gymnasial 
Seminaries  in  Chabot,  Ch.,  La  Pedagogic  au  Lycee.  Paris,  1903.  These 
Notes  de  Voyage,  and  especially  the  concluding  chapter,  afford  illumi- 
nating contrasts  between  the  German  and  French  methods  of  training. 
Langlois,  La  Preparation  pro/essionelle,  quotes  with  approval  the  favor- 
able verdict  on  the  Gymnasial  Seminaries  in  Paulsen's  Geschichte  des 
gelekrten  Unterrichts,  II,  624. 


THE   TEACHER  43 

tunities  for  the  study  of  this  system  ;  and  the  sacrifice 
of  a  year  of  one's  professional  career  is  amply  repaid 
by  the  insight  gained.  That  this  opportunity  is  not 
more  strenuously  sought  is,  amongst  other  things,  an 
evidence  that  the  desire  for  professional  advancement 
is  not  yet  sufficiently  keen.  In  his  fourth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation,  1909  (pp.  147-156), 
President  Pritchett  discusses  the  study  of  German  teach- 
ing methods  made  by  the  American  exchange  teachers. 
Shall  we  ever  succeed  in  establishing  such  a  system 
of  training  for  our  secondary  school  teachers  as  the 
German  gymnasial  seminaries  afford  .-•  For  our  guid- 
ance certain  facts  should  stand  out  clearly.  However 
full  and  exact  the  teacher's  information  in  subject  matter, 
it  requires  persistent  study  to  adjust  it  to  the  practical 
needs  of  the  school.  The  teacher  in  active  service 
must  continue  a  student  —  a  truism  that  has  been  pro- 
claimed from  the  housetops.  What  is  the  type  of  study 
that  we  ought  to  demand  of  him }  We  know  that  the 
self-respecting  teacher  will  never  face  his  class  without 
due  preparation  for  the  task  of  the  day ;  this  obhgation 
is  quite  generally  recognized,  but  does  this  conception 
of  duty  meet  the  ideal  demands  of  the  teaching  pro- 
fession .''  The  majority  of  teachers  undertake  this  ob- 
ligation in  a  literal  and  mechanical  sense ;  they  prepare 
for  the  coming  lesson  because  without  such  preparation 
their  knowledge  of  the  topics  might  prove  inadequate, 


44  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

unsound ;  they  rehearse  the  allotted  topics  to  make 
themselves  sure  of  accuracy  of  statement,  correctness 
in  perspective.  This  is  not  what  we  would  regard  as 
preparation ;  a  teacher  who  must  rehearse  the  assigned 
lesson  to  guard  against  betraying  in  the  eyes  of  his 
pupils  his  ignorance  of  the  subject  matter  is  on  a  low 
plane  of  intellectual  effort.  The  assumption  of  such  a 
necessity  is  indeed  an  absurdity.  And  yet  how  many 
teachers  are  so  uncertain  even  in  fields  in  which  they 
profess  to  specialize  that  they  themselves  con  the  as- 
signed lessons  to  make  sure  of  their  own  statements, 
perform  the  allotted  examples  to  avoid  lapses  into  error, 
etc.  Preparation  of  this  kind  is  a  confession  of  inability; 
to  the  teacher  the  performance  of  these  tasks  should 
be  the  veritable  a  b  c  oi  his  art.  It  is  preparation  in 
the  broader  sense  that  we  demand,  the  introduction  of 
collateral  material,  the  opening  up  of  new  vistas  by  which 
he  should  strive  to  illuminate  the  routine  recitation. 

It  is  a  familiar  experience  that  those  who  have  de- 
voted much  thought,  constant  effort,  after  graduation  to 
the  development  of  their  teaching  powers  are  apt  to  be 
most  diffident  of  success.  Not  by  teaching  do  we  learn, 
but  in  teaching  we  learn  ;  docendo  discinms  is  but  too 
often  falsely  applied ;  not  that  teaching  makes  self- 
instruction,  self-improvement,  unnecessary,  on  the  con- 
trary in  teaching  we  feel  our  own  weaknesses,  and 
should  feel  prompted  to  go  on  ever  supplementing,  re- 


THE   TEACHER  45 

adjusting  our  information.  The  mature  teacher  who 
has  never  ceased  to  enlarge  his  own  sphere  of  knowl- 
edge marvels  that  he  ever  dared  to  teach  with  the  lim- 
ited outfit  of  his  early  preparation,  and  it  is  he  who 
realizes  how  much  better  a  teacher  each  year  of  future 
study  will  make  him.  But  it  is  only  personal  effort 
that  will  make  him  conscious  of  this  ever  widening  vista 
of  attainable  information.  He  only  will  never  relax  in 
generous  interest  in  a  subject,  says  a  recent  writer,  who 
constantly  feels  a  growth  in  his  own  conception  of  the 
subject. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  many  quarters  there  pre- 
vails with  us  a  kind  of  suspicion  against  a  teacher  who 
scans  the  newest  publications  for  additional  light  on  the 
subjects  he  teaches ;  it  is  in  all  seriousness  deemed  an 
element  of  danger  in  his  teaching,  this  unrest  because 
of  the  new  avenues  into  which  his  studies  may  lead 
him ;  it  is  feared,  forsooth,  that  such  a  teacher  may  too 
easily  abandon  established  lines  of  presentation  in  favor 
of  new  views.  From  a  teacher  of  genuinely  inquiring 
spirit  no  such  danger  need  be  apprehended ;  the  very 
spirit  that  reacts  against  mechanical  repetition  prompts 
him  to  distinguish  between  that  which  is  eternally  valu- 
able and  that  which  is  of  ephemeral  interest.  The 
young  teacher  may,  for  a  season,  miscalculate  the  pro- 
portion of  things,  and  accentuate  unduly  to  his  pupils 
what  to  him  seems  of  the  greatest  moment,  but  he  will 


46  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

soon  realize  that  he  can  present,  year  after  year,  the  es- 
sentials of  his  subject  with  absolute  accuracy,  and  yet, 
without  shifting  the  proper  balance  of  things  important 
and  unimportant,  keep  his  own  intellectual  interests  in 
view. 

As  long  as  the  teacher  remains  a  student,  an  in- 
quirer, he  will  resist  the  dullness  of  the  commonplace ; 
but  unfortunately  in  too  many  instances  the  only  ad- 
vance striven  for  is  in  the  direction  of  routine  attain- 
ment, of  skill  in  the  manipulations  of  the  art  of  teach- 
ing. Temporarily  this  is  of  course  a  clear  gain,  but  the 
skill  which  is  not  constantly  illuminated  and  permeated 
by  new  insight,  becomes  a  deadly  cleverness  which 
manipulates  pupils  for  results  and  tabulates  their  at- 
tainments by  finely-graduated  percentages. 

For  the  individual  teacher  it  is  vital  to  counteract  the 
deadening  effect  of  the  inevitable  repetition  that  succes- 
sive years  of  teaching  the  same  subject  require;  he 
realizes  that  the  essentials  of  the  subject  must  be  in- 
sisted upon  with  absolute  accuracy,  but  if  his  private 
reading  has  revealed  new  aspects  of  the  subject,  its 
familiar  details  will  be  enUvened  for  him,  and  conse- 
quently for  his  pupils,  by  the  new  inspiration.  There 
are  those  who  dread  the  influence  of  desultoriness 
from  such  new  acquisition ;  they  argue  that  it  may 
defeat  systematic  work.  Not  so ;  exuberance  is  eas- 
ily checked ;    sterility   is   the   deadly    sin.     The    good 


THE   TEACHER  47 

teacher  is  always  the  intellectually  live  teacher.  A 
case  in  point  is  our  striking  improvement  in  mathe- 
matical teaching  within  recent  years ;  the  impulse  due 
to  John  Perry's  articles,^  and  to  the  description  of  Eu- 
ropean methods  of  mathematical  teaching  in  the  books 
of  Young  and  Smith,^  has  permanently  affected  the 
thought  of  our  best  mathematical  teachers ;  individu- 
ally and  in  conferences  there  has  been  a  recasting  of 
teaching  processes  that  is  reflected  in  such  journals  as 
School  Science  and  Mathematics,  in  activities  of  larger 
teaching  bodies,  as  in  the  Report  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Association  of  Mathematical  Teachers  on  Es- 
sential Propositions  of  Geometry,  and  in  the  newest 
mathematical  textbooks. 

Similarly  the  teaching  in  modern  languages  is  on  the 
eve  of  a  marked  transformation,  due  to  the  growing 
acquaintance  of  the  most  progressive  teachers,  through 
personal  observation  and  zealous  study  of  the  literature, 
with  the  Direct  Method  that  has  conquered  its  way  to 
recognition  all  over  Europe.  In  this  particular  case 
our  textbook  authors  are  still  lagging ;  but  few  suc- 
cessful efforts  to  embody  the  new  processes  have  been 
pubhshed  with  us ;  the  thoughtful  teachers  are  creating 

1  Perry,  John,  The  Teaching  of  Mathematics.     London,  1902. 

*  Young,  J.  W.  A.,  The  Teaching  of  Mathematics  in  the  Elementary 
and  Secondary  Schools,  especially  chaps.  VI  and  X.  Longmans,  1907. 
Smith,  David  Eugene,  The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Mathematics.  Mac- 
millan,  1902. 


48  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

the  demand,  and  meanwhile  use,  under  many  disadvan- 
tages, the  material  published  abroad  and  in  foreign 
tongues. 

So,  too,  in  the  teaching  of  science  and  of  the  classics, 
a  limited  number  of  teachers  are  responsible  for  a  prop- 
aganda that  will  result  in  a  readjustment  both  of  meth- 
ods of  instruction  and  of  the  aims  of  teaching  these 
subjects. 

Under  such  influences  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  those 
who  are  called  upon  to  select  teachers  will  meet  less 
frequently,  and  accept  still  less  frequently,  the  college 
graduate  who  has  nothing  more  to  learn,  who  feels  con- 
tent with  the  higher  education  he  has  attained.  It  is  be- 
coming daily  more  clear  how  infinitely  complex  is  this 
apparently  simple  task  of  conveying  information,  of 
stimulating  interest  and  developing  mental  and  moral 
habits.  A  teacher  who  is  completely  satisfied  with  him- 
self has  forfeited  his  usefulness  ;  a  school  prospers  with 
the  intellectual  and  professional  growth  of  its  individual 
teachers.  With  all  his  vagaries,  the  teacher  who  has 
originative  power  is  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  community. 

For  genuine  stimulation  of  intellectual  growth  (in 
subject  matter  rather  than  in  pedagogic  skill)  the 
summer  schools  of  our  universities  afford  an  opportu- 
nity that  ambitious  teachers  gladly  avail  themselves 
of ;  to  many  of  them  these  schools  have  been  the  true 
starting  point  for  individual  work.     The  earnestness  of 


THE   TEACHER  49 

purpose,  the  maturity  of  the  students,  the  clearer  esti- 
mate of  values  make  these  brief  and  comparatively 
sketchy  courses  a  basis  for  further  progress  ;  "  learning 
for  learning's  sake  "  marks  the  general  tone  of  the  sum- 
mer school.  Even  misdirected  energy  is  preferable  to 
apathy,  for  it  challenges  sane  energy. 

Valuable,  however,  as  is  the  growth  in  knowledge 
of  subject  matter,  its  application  to  teaching  demands 
definite  theoretic  instruction,  definitely  directed  practice. 
The  Committee  of  Fifteen  ^  repudiate  the  idea  of  a  suc- 
cess attainable  by  an  intuitive  feeling  for  what  is  cor- 
rect, "the  most  treacherous  of  all  standards." 

There  have  accumulated  gradually  from  close  ob- 
servation and  psychological  deductions  a  certain  num- 
ber of  guiding  principles  that  are  available  for  every 
young  teacher ;  to  ignore  these  is  to  forfeit  the  value 
of  previous  experiences ;  to  apply  them  does  not  call 
for  the  sacrifice  of  a  teacher's  individuality.  It  is 
wholesome  and  not  cramping  to  the  mind  of  a  young 
teacher,  if  he  gives  himself  and  his  associates  or  supe- 
riors an  exact  account  of  what  he  aims  at  in  his  teach- 
ing, and  why  he  follows  out  a  certain  procedure. 
Natural  ability  is  stimulated,  not  hindered,  by  a  wise 
and  purposeful  control ;  the  great  thinkers  of  all  ages 
agree  that  rational  discipline  improves  native   power. 

1  Report  of  Committee  of  Fifteen,  pp.  27-39,  published  for  the  N.  E.  A. 
by  the  American  Book  Company,  1895. 


5©  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

It  is,  for  instance,  a  matter  of  common  acceptance  that 
the  attention  of  a  class  must  be  secured  at  the  outset,  if 
successful  work  is  to  be  done ;  that  the  teacher's  visual 
and  auditory  senses  are  involved  in  the  highest  degree 
to  insure  attention,  to  prevent  misstatements  and  inac- 
curacies from  leaving  their  impress  on  the  young  minds 
(a  critical  visitor  is  often  amazed  at  the  amount  of  mis- 
information that  some  teachers  will  allow  to  pass  un- 
noticed) ;  it  is  likewise  an  accepted  doctrine  that  every 
lesson  should  follow  a  distinct  plan,  actually  outlined  on 
paper,  or  else  mentally  organized,  from  the  terminus  a 
quo  to  the  terminus  ad  quern  ;  that  only  thus  is  it  pos- 
sible to  accentuate  the  essentials  and  subordinate  the 
incidentals,  a  scheme  quite  as  important  for  the  pupil 
as  for  the  instructor ;  that  a  rate  of  advance  must  be  de- 
termined at  the  outset,  conditioned  in  part  by  the  nature 
of  the  subject  and  the  object  of  the  lesson,  in  part  by 
the  mental  status  of  the  pupils.  The  achievements  of 
a  self-possessed,  enthusiastic  teacher  compare  with  the 
vacillating  processes  of  a  novice  like  the  steady  pace 
of  a  well-trained  horse  with  the  jerky  plunges  of  an  un- 
broken colt.  The  effect  on  the  pupils  is  always  in  evi- 
dence ;  the  conscious  direction  and  impulse  of  an  expert 
will  in  the  shortest  time  develop  activity,  interest,  en- 
ergy, even  from  sluggish  pupils ;  the  erratic  teacher 
will  exhaust  the  vitality  and  attention  even  of  the  best 
pupils. 


THE   TEACHER  5 1 

The  Art  of  Teaching  will  of  necessity  involve  two 
spheres  of  preliminary  activity  —  the  sphere  of  observa- 
tion and  that  of  practice  teaching.  Criticism  must 
accompany  both  phases,  differentiated  according  to  the 
circumstances.  The  student  teacher,  as  he  observes, 
exercises  his  own  critical  faculty ;  he  notes  in  the  class- 
room he  is  visiting  the  attitude  of  both  teacher  and 
pupils,  acquires  for  himself  a  standard  of  proper  bear- 
ing, interprets  the  attitude  of  the  teacher,  determines, 
if  he  can,  the  causes  of  abnormal  conditions.  They 
may  be  due  to  pecuHar  methods  of  the  teacher  or  to 
a  peculiar  corporate  school-attitude  which  he  must  like- 
wise try  to  fathom.  Here  comparison  of  many  classes, 
of  several  schools,  is  necessary,  observation  of  the  same 
class  under  various  teachers.  Voice,  manner  of  the 
teacher,  temperamental  details,  conditions  of  physical 
comfort  or  discomfort  in  the  pupils,  all  these  factors  are 
important.  He  will  try  to  determine  from  the  routine 
conduct  of  the  lesson,  of  several  lessons,  the  presence 
of  an  actual  method  :  Is  there  a  method  ?  Is  it  inflexible  ? 
How  does  this  express  itself  in  the  interest  and  respon- 
siveness of  the  pupil  .■'  Or  is  it  flexible  ?  Does  this  flex- 
ibility approach  the  limit  of  desultoriness .-'  Has  the 
teacher  the  power  to  correlate  his  facts  and  to  convey  the 
impression  of  a  design  maintained  throughout .-'  Does 
the  class  exercise  result  in  a  distinct  and  appreciable 
advance  in  information  or  method  ?     What  relation  does 


52  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

the  conscious  development  of  method  bear  to  the  presen- 
tation of  subject  matter  ?  This  is  a  question  of  particu- 
lar significance  and  particular  danger  in  a  school  that  is 
intended  to  be  a  school  of  observation,  for  method  is, 
after  all,  subordinate  to  that  which  is  to  be  presented 
methodically.  Is  a  moderate  advance  along  the  infor- 
mational side  warranted  by  the  significant  attainment 
of  a  point  in  method  ?  (In  mathematics  a  slow  advance 
may  really  signify  a  marked  gain  in  insight.)  The 
value  of  such  observations  is  enhanced  for  the  student 
teacher  if  he  can  obtain  from  the  teacher  whose  work 
he  has  been  watching,  sympathetic  answers  in  corrobora- 
tion or  correction  of  his  impressions. 

It  is  a  difficult  question  to  decide,  and  it  has  been 
decided  in  various  ways,  whether  theoretic  discussions 
of  educational  methods  with  the  teacher  candidate  had 
better  precede  or  follow  the  observational  and  the  prac- 
tice work  of  the  candidate.  A  novice  should  not,  I 
believe,  undertake  observation  and  practice  without  a 
previous  acquaintance  with  the  fundamentals  of  peda- 
gogy ;  we  do  not  want  blind  groping  at  method.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  set  down  as  an  axiom  that 
the  true  meaning  of  theory  reveals  itself  only  in  the 
light  of  actual  experimentation ;  of  infinitely  greater 
value  is  the  renewed  consideration  of  principles,  when 
the  test  of  experience  supervenes.  The  personal  equation 
in  this  case  is  the  supreme  modifying  influence  for  the 


THE   TEACHER  53 

young  teacher ;  not  what  is  the  sound  method  of 
handling  the  subject  matter,  but  what  can  I,  the  teacher, 
with  the  pupils  intrusted  to  me  (considering  my  and 
their  personal  equation),  make  the  most  effective  method  ? 
Educational  principles  cannot  be  applied  like  mathe- 
matical formulas,  like  immutable  laws. 

The  most  valuable  period  of  a  teacher's  training,  then, 
is  in  the  year  of  probation  and  the  first  years  of  actual  ex- 
perience, when,  studying  his  handbooks  of  theory,  he 
measures  their  recommendations  by  the  standards  he  has 
gathered  in  actual  practice.  Not  every  teacher,  not  even 
every  good  teacher,  affords  at  all  times  favorable  oppor- 
tunity for  such  observation  as  has  been  here  described ; 
there  are  many,  the  charm  of  whose  teaching  is  only 
revealed  when  they  are  perfectly  at  their  ease ;  they  are 
disturbed  by  the  presence  of  a  number  of  observers. 
Such  idiosyncrasies  must  be  borne  in  mind  when  candi- 
dates undertake  to  visit  in  large  bodies  a  single  class- 
room ;  it  is  questionable  whether  one  then  sees  even  the 
best  teachers  at  their  best,  and  it  is  equally  doubtful 
whether  under  such  circumstances  we  get  the  normal 
class  attitude ;  we  must  visit  the  same  teacher,  the  same 
class,  frequently,  until  the  novelty  of  our  presence  has 
worn  off  with  teacher  and  pupils. 

Because  of  these  very  obvious  difficulties,  it  follows 
that  in  a  school  intended  to  serve  as  a  model  for  obser- 
vation, none  but  teachers  of  the  very  highest  order,  both 


54  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

in  scholastic  attainments  and  in  didactic  efficiency, 
should  be  permitted  ;  none  of  the  weaknesses  just  men- 
tioned should  flagrantly  obtrude  themselves.  Teachers 
with  crude  methods,  themselves  uncertain  in  their 
methods,  should  never  be  permitted  in  such  training 
schools  as  regular  class  teachers ;  if  they  are  to  be 
observed  as  models,  they  must  not  illustrate  to  the 
student  teacher  how  not  to  do  it. 

Criticism  of  what  has  been  observed  is  the  other  half 
of  the  observational  scheme.  Here  particularly  the 
sound  mind  will  assert  itself ;  it  is  easier  to  criticize  than 
to  interpret  action  ;  we  must  needs  project  ourselves  into 
the  conditions  under  which  we  see  the  teacher  operate, 
and  then  weigh  and  estimate. 

We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  prospec- 
tive teacher  in  his  visits  to  various  classes  has  two  ob- 
jects in  view,  each  of  which  involves  a  different  kind  of 
observation.  It  is  to  be  assumed  that  every  candidate 
plans  to  teach  certain  subjects ;  in  the  technique  of 
these  he  is  for  a  multitude  of  reasons  vitally  interested. 
All  the  subjects  of  the  curriculum,  however,  afford  in- 
sight into  the  principles  of  those  who  teach  them ;  he  is 
therefore  also  ready  to  appropriate  what  these  other  sub- 
jects may  convey  to  him  in  suggestion  and  actual  pre- 
cept. His  attitude  toward  observation  of  his  special 
subjects  will,  if  he  is  wise,  differ  very  markedly  from 
his  outlook  upon  the  broader  field.     Economy  of  effort 


THE   TEACHER  55 

dictates  that  when  he  watches  the  teaching  in  his  own 
sphere  of  activity,  he  will  devote  but  a  short  time  to  a 
consideration  of  the  general  aims  of  the  subject.  With 
the  main  point  of  view  clearly  fixed  in  his  mind,  his 
later  experience  will  constantly  bring  this  question 
afresh  before  him.  He  will  move  toward  the  specific 
problems  as  he  sees  them,  the  method  or  methods  of 
developing  the  subject,  of  securing  interest  and  efficiency 
in  the  pupils,  the  aids  to  instruction  employed,  their 
particular  value  for  the  purpose  in  hand.  The  general 
principles  that  underlie  the  teaching  in  other  subjects 
he  will  gather  from  observation  on  more  sweeping  lines. 
This  matter  of  economy  of  effort  in  observation  is  not 
easily  attained  by  the  beginner,  but  he  must  control  his 
energies ;  even  the  experienced  teacher  is  in  danger 
of  wasting  his  time  when  he  inspects  for  his  own 
enlightenment  systems  of  education  with  which  he  is 
unfamiliar. 

To  emerge  from  observation  into  practice  teaching  is 
to  the  novice  a  critical  experience  of  the  first  order.  I 
do  not  apply  the  words  practice  teaching  to  the  crude  at- 
tempts in  class  instruction  which  are  based  on  no  pre- 
ceding reflection,  such  work  as  a  young  college  graduate 
might  do  who  without  guidance  or  deliberate  pedagogic 
preparation  believes  that  by  some  mysterious  dispensa- 
tion he  will  issue  unscathed  from  the  ordeal ;  I  refer 
rather  to  the  teacher  who  from  prolonged  observation 


56  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

and  preparation  for  the  special  duty  comes  to  the  task 
with  a  definite  purpose,  a  definite  scheme.  All  the 
familiarity  with  the  subject  matter  that  he  can  muster 
must  be  available  ;  he  must  have  removed  by  careful 
reflection  on  his  theme  all  reasonable  chances  of  dis- 
comfiture on  the  informational  path,  so  that  his  mind 
may  operate  freely  in  the  one  direction  which  is  entirely 
new  and  personal,  however  frequently  he  may  have 
seen  others  teach.  His  personal  equation  enters  for  the 
first  time  into  the  calculation,  and  however  closely  he 
may  have  studied  voice,  manner,  bearing  of  others,  his 
own  individuality  which,  despite  all  efforts  at  imitation, 
pervades  all  that  he  does,  and  is  so  recognized  by 
the  pupils,  becomes  a  potent  factor  in  the  trial.  It  need 
not  be  a  final  factor,  for  many  a  young  teacher's  first 
appearance  before  a  class  shows  obvious  shortcomings 
that  admit  of  remedy. 

The  main  point  will  be  that  criticism  of  a  broad, 
constructive  type  is  afforded  him,  criticism  that  is 
capable  of  grasping  the  total  value  of  a  performance 
in  its  light  and  shade,  that  will  not  indulge  in  hair- 
splitting; it  is  this  kind  of  work  that  inspires  with 
strength  and  confidence,  that  upHfts  the  hearts  of  the 
weak,  and  yet  indicates  unerringly  the  nature  of  the 
weakness.  There  should  be  if  possible  both  positive  and 
negative  criticism  of  the  candidate's  performance;  an 
absolute  condemnation  of  his  performance  is  as  undesir- 


THE   TEACHER  57 

able  as  undiscriminating  praise;  nothing  is  absolutely 
bad,  nothing  absolutely  perfect.  But  beyond  this,  there 
should  always  be  sought,  either  by  the  associates  or  by 
the  teacher  in  authority,  some  formulation  of  a  broader 
conception  that  carries  the  exercise  beyond  its  concrete 
limitations ;  from  the  exercise  as  a  whole,  or  from  some 
one  of  its  phases,  it  should  be  possible  to  establish  re- 
lation with  some  general  educational  problem  that  has 
evoked  a  divergence  of  opinion,  or  that  deserves  more 
detailed  consideration.^  Whatever  we  can  do  to  arouse, 
aside  from  the  technique  of  our  profession,  a  vivid 
interest  in  the  philosophic  aspects  of  our  work,  is  a 
stimulus  to  the  young  teacher's  further  inquiries. 

Let  the  practice  teaching  be  carried  on  genuinely,  i.e. 
let  the  pupils  correspond  in  age  and  mental  advance- 
ment to  those  the  teacher  will  probably  have  to  deal 
with.  It  does  not  seem  at  all  profitable  to  devise  what 
might  be  called  an  artificial  class  for  the  practice  teach- 
ing. A  seminary  class  of  one's  associates  does  not  af- 
ford a  genuine  opportunity  for  the  test  of  a  teacher's 
power ;  it  does  not  present  the  mental  status  of  the  real 
pupil.  It  may  injure  the  young  teacher  in  various 
ways ;    he  is  not  dealing  with  representative  average 

1  The  business  of  teacher  (and  physician  ahke),  says  Findlay,  Pnn- 
ciples  of  Class  Teaching,  p.  263,  Macmillan,  1902,  is  to  search  for  com- 
mon principles,  springing  out  of,  and  again  reflecting  upon,  daily 
practice. 


58  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

pupils  ;  they  would  follow  the  bent  of  his  questions  too 
promptly,  so  that  he  is  not  forced  to  the  full  exercise 
of  his  teaching  ingenuity.  Again,  such  a  mature  body 
of  colleagues  will  not  furnish  the  naive  surprises  that 
come  from  irresponsive  or  undeveloped  minds,  and  that 
are  inseparable  from  genuine  teaching. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation,  here  and 
abroad,  how  rapidly  under  judicious  and  sympathetic 
criticism  the  most  obvious  errors  of  method  disappear 
in  young  teachers  ;  there  are  few  who  are  not  appre- 
ciably benefited  by  an  experienced  guide.  And  these 
initial  difficulties  once  overcome,  there  is  given  leeway 
for  the  development  of  the  personal  factor  in  the 
teacher.  Flexibility  in  teaching,  the  capacity  to  im- 
part light  and  shade  to  the  work,  to  know  when  the 
pace  can  afford  to  be  accelerated,  when  it  must  be  re- 
tarded, when  the  outlines,  the  sharp  definition,  of  the 
work  must  be  maintained  at  all  hazards,  when  it  is  to 
be  accentuated,  when,  on  the  other  hand,  a  digression 
is  a  wholesome  reenforcement  of  a  set  plan,  when  the 
logical  array  of  a  succession  of  facts  will  summarize 
what  has  been  deftly  developed  in  patient  detail  work  — 
those  are  the  qualities  in  which  the  growth  of  the 
teacher  becomes  manifest.  And  such  growth  will  is- 
sue, not  so  much  from  length  of  service,  as  it  will  from 
independent  work  on  his  part,  due  to  his  own  constant 
study. 


THE   TEACHER  59 

The  opinion  is  gaining  wider  acceptance  that  many 
of  the  issues  which  the  writers  on  educational  subjects 
have  been  treating  dogmatically,  in  abstract  generaliza- 
tions as  it  were,  have  a  personal  impHcation  and  must 
be  regarded  from  this  point  of  view  rather  than  from 
theoretical  considerations.  Take  for  instance  the  im- 
portant subject  of  Class  Management.  To  formulate 
principles  which  shall  secure  the  desired  ends  is  idle, 
unless  the  teacher's  personality  is  capable  of  translating 
them  into  practice ;  there  is  no  escape  from  the  cumu- 
lative responsibility  centering  in  and  about  the  teacher. 
His  mental,  physical,  and  moral  qualities  determine  suc- 
cess or  failure ;  whatever  the  constitution  of  the  class, 
whatever  the  social  atmosphere  in  which  his  educational 
task  lies,  a  measure  of  successful  performance  can  al- 
ways be  reached,  if  he  is  intellectually  resourceful,  nor- 
mally balanced,  free  from  pedantry,  and  inspiring. 
Himself  an  exemplar  of  abounding  energy  and  vi- 
tality, his  bearing  and  his  view  of  life  should  inspire 
confidence  and  invite  to  imitation  of  his  conduct.  Of 
his  mental  equipment  we  have  already  spoken. 

It  is  no  disparagement  of  the  value  of  the  informa- 
tional outfit  that  the  teacher  brings  to  his  task  to  at- 
tribute an  equal  importance  to  the  physical  and  the 
moral  side  of  the  teacher's  equipment.  Teaching  is 
always  an  arduous  task,  in  its  preliminaries  of  prepa- 
ration, its  actual  conduct  in  the  class,  and  its  subsequent 


6o  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

duties.  Physical  frailty  is  a  serious  handicap  to  suc- 
cess ;  an  abounding  vitality  that  carries  with  it  the 
evidence  of  physical  well-being  and  draws  upon  a  large 
reserve  of  unexpended  energy,  appeals  wonderfully  to 
vigorous,  alert  adolescents.  Good  health,  a  good  consti- 
tution, sound  lungs,  with  their  concomitant,  a  normally 
resonant  voice,  are  priceless  assets  of  the  teacher.  The 
teacher  who  directly  or  indirectly  craves  by  his  bearing  the 
indulgence  of  his  class,  has  forfeited  no  slight  advantage. 
The  teacher  in  Germany,  male  or  female,  stands, 
moves  freely  before  the  class  in  teaching,  teaches  twenty 
to  twenty-four  hours  per  week,  and  continues  in  this  prac- 
tice through  thirty  years  without  apparent  physical  im- 
pairment. So  unusual  is  the  sight  of  a  seated  teacher, 
that  an  apology  is  offered,  e.g.  recent  recovery  from 
severe  illness,  for  the  unusual  phenomenon  (in  sixty-five 
classes  visited  during  one  stay  in  Germany  I  saw  but 
one  teacher  seated  before  his  class).  The  American 
teacher,  male  and  female,  usually  sits,  sits  continu- 
ously, claims  that  there  is  something  reposeful,  quiet- 
ing, in  the  habitual  posture  at  the  desk ;  do  we  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  the  sedentary  attitude  de  rigeiir, 
whether  of  pupil  or  of  teacher,  is  not  conducive  to 
mental  alertness  .'*  The  German  teacher  has  no  fear 
of  rapid,  energetic  movement  in  the  classroom  ;  and  his 
pupils  move  with  considerable  alacrity  to  and  from  the 
blackboard,  without  the  slightest  impairment  of  class 


THE   TEACHER  6 1 

discipline ;  life,  bustle,  mobility,  make  the  classroom 
more  human,  less  abnormal.  The  teacher  who  moves 
freely  will  of  necessity  liberate  himself  from  the  shack- 
les of  the  textbook,  or,  shall  we  say  because  of  his 
independence  of  the  textbook  he  feels  himself  freer  in 
his  movements,  able  to  survey  the  activities  of  his  class 
from  various  points  of  vantage  ?  Without  being  vola- 
tile or  restless,  he  is  far  more  competent  to  feel  the 
pulse  of  the  entire  class,  to  gauge  the  advisability  of 
retardation  or  acceleration  of  pace,  to  modulate  with 
discretion  between  the  colloquial  tone  in  teaching  and 
the  more  formal  utterance,  to  introduce  relevant,  col- 
lateral information.  Physical  impact  of  individual  upon 
individual  becomes  an  advantageous  element  of  class 
discipline ;  and  many  of  the  disabilities  of  imperfect 
eyesight,  of  defective  hearing  that  will  develop  in 
teachers  as  in  other  mortals  are  mitigated.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  the  physical  alertness  of  the  teacher  affects 
materially   many  questions  of  class  discipline. 

How  often  are  we  teachers  unknowingly  the  promoters 
of  disciplinary  infractions,  when  our  own  activity  would 
constitute  the  ounce  of  prevention !  How  often  could 
we  by  the  force  that  inheres  in  unobtrusive  example 
affect  the  bearing  of  our  pupils,  if  we  would  but  remem- 
ber that  in  the  adolescent  stage  both  unconscious  and 
conscious  imitation  are  powerful  factors  in  develop- 
ment !     Well-modulated  utterance,  distinct  enunciation, 


62  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

definiteness  in  the  information  we  impart  should  make 
their  impression,  and  stimulate  to  similar  effort.  The 
kind  of  discipline  that  these  qualities  insure  operates 
by  indirect  means,  by  agencies  that  the  pupils  do  not 
recognize  as  disciplinary ;  their  effectiveness  has  long 
since  been  recognized  in  our  elementary  schools,  where 
they  have  largely  replaced  restrictive  measures  of  dis- 
cipline. There  is  in  reason  nothing  to  condone  the  lais- 
sez-aller  policy  in  matters  of  indirect  discipline  which 
has  taken  possession  of  many  of  our  secondary  schools. 
Are  habits  of  good  training,  which  manifest  themselves 
in  distinct  utterance,  in  neatness  of  copy  books,  of  note- 
books, of  mathematical  exercises,  less  desirable  in  the 
advanced  stage  than  in  the  elementary  school,  less  val- 
uable for  effective  service  in  life  }  It  would  almost  seem 
that  we  have  come  to  include  the  demand  for  precision 
and  order  among  the  uncongenial  tasks  on  which  the  ado- 
lescent is  privileged  to  exercise  the  freedom  of  election. 
The  havoc  that  has  been  wrought  by  the  outcry  against 
the  uncongenial  task  cannot  be  measured. 

We  are  approaching  dangerously  at  times  the  limit 
when  every  task  is  considered  uncongenial ;  it  is  fair  to 
say  that  in  every  study,  in  every  performance  of  a  definite 
duty  there  are  broad  stretches  that  do  not  appear  attrac- 
tive ;  shall  we  permit  their  elimination  because  the  un- 
trained mind  of  the  pupil  fails  to  recognize  their  ultimate 
value .''    It  is  but  a  natural  development  of  this  concession 


THE   TEACHER  63 

to  find  our  teachers,  too,  clamoring  to  be  assigned  to  none 
but  congenial  tasks ;  it  is  because  of  this  feeling  that 
the  ill-trained  teacher  spurns  the  beginnings  of  a  study 
and  prefers  the  assignment  to  higher  classes,  in  which 
he  is  foredoomed  to  ill  success,  because  he  has  never 
presented  the  rudiments  properly.  It  is  mortifying  to 
have  our  great  educational  bodies  commit  themselves 
to  false  doctrine,  the  weakness  of  which  the  educated 
layman  can  puncture. 

The  teacher  whose  whole  attitude  before  his  class 
is  virile,  creates  in  his  pupils  recognition  of  his  ability 
to  control,  and  no  sensible  teacher  will  deem  it  wise  to 
forego  his  central  position  of  control ;  abdication  of 
authority,  if  actually  carried  out,  is  fatal  to  school 
organization.  There  is  distinct  merit  in  various  schemes 
of  so-called  self-government  of  the  student  body,  in  so 
far  as  they  arouse  to  a  keener  sense  of  responsibility 
the  immature  tendencies  of  the  pupils.  As  a  training 
to  self-respect,  to  respectful  consideration  of  the  rights 
of  others,  to  appreciation  above  all  else  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  duty,  the  creation  of  student  councils  has  much 
to  commend  it.  Because  their  appeal  to  their  fellow 
students  is  based  on  the  relation  of  peer  to  peer,  their 
cooperation  with  the  school  administration  will  under 
wise  guidance  obviate  the  constant  display  of  authority.* 

1  Burstall,  English  High  Schools  for  Girls,  p.  148.  Longmans  &  Co., 
1907. 


64  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

Guidance,  however,  there  must  be ;  and  the  principal 
who  does  not  reserve  to  himself  the  decisive  voice  in 
great  questions  of  school  policy  is  recreant  to  his  trust. 
One  of  our  most  successful  high  school  principals  in 
New  York  City  assigns  many  details  of  school  disci- 
pline, school  organizations,  arrangement  and  character 
of  the  public  exercises  of  the  school,  to  committees  of 
the  pupils,  cultivates  in  them  the  power  of  efficient  per- 
formance, eliminates  apparently  himself  and  his  teachers 
from  constant  and  open  leadership, — but  remains  all 
the  more  the  constantly  controlling,  inspiring  influence. 
We  are  imposing  an  unrighteous  strain  upon  these 
young  people,  if  they  cannot  turn  in  their  dilemmas  to 
the  counsels  of  experience  for  guidance. 

Once  more  there  applies  what  cannot  be  too  strongly 
emphasized  — training  to  judgment  is  the  great  function 
of  the  secondary  school ;  that  involves  careful,  competent 
direction.  Judgment,  discretion,  are  matters  of  gradual 
acquisition,  and  premature  responsibilities  often  mean  a 
wreck  of  promising  abilities.  The  qualifications  of  the 
teacher  manifest  themselves  as  potently  in  his  attitude 
toward  these  questions  as  in  the  construction  of  school 
programs  and  curricula.  Firmness  and  consistency,  tem- 
pered by  kindliness  and  sympathy,  the  management  of  a 
secondary  school  organization  needs.  More  even  than 
the  elementary  school  pupil,  the  adolescent  must  be  awak- 
ened to  the  conviction  that  his  interests  must  coalesce  with 


THE   TEACHER  65 

those  of  others,  but  not  dominate  them  ;  the  school,  to 
function  properly,  cannot  yield  to  individualism  running 
riot.  Of  the  virile  teacher,  however,  and  it  is  he  only  who 
is  equal  to  the  great  responsibilities  of  his  task,  it  may 
fairly  be  demanded  that  he  employ  methods  of  discipline 
appropriate  to  the  nascent  maturity  of  his  charges. 

Our  American  system  differs  at  this  point  very  dis- 
tinctly, and  in  ver}'^  wholesome  fashion,  from  systems 
abroad ;  we  lay  stress  on  positive  rather  than  negative 
methods  of  discipline.  Our  efforts  are  constantly  direct- 
ed to  make  our  school  training  an  encouragement  to  good 
habits  ;  the  positive,  constructive  side  of  our  disciplinary 
problem  is  in  the  foreground.  No  more  striking  illustra- 
tion of  this  divergence  in  spirit  between  our  educational 
doctrine  and  that  of  Germany  exists  than  is  afforded  in 
the  encyclopedic  summaries  of  educational  questions. 
Encyclopedias  of  education,  like  Rein  ^  and  Loos,^ 
abound  in  exhaustive  discussions  of  the  delinquencies 
of  school  children ;  they  are  analyzed,  traced  to  their 
origins,  set  forth  in  their  various  manifestations  ;  the 
restrictive  and  corrective  processes  desirable  to  combat 
them,  the  methods  and  forms  of  punishment  are  inves- 
tigated.    Their  ulterior  purpose  is  undoubtedly  identical 

*  Rein,  W.,  Eiicyklop'diisches  I/andbuch  der  Pddagogik,  2d  ed., 
10  vols.     Langensalza,  1904. 

2  Loos,  Jos.,  Encyklop'ddisches  Handbuch  der  £rziehungskii?ide, 
2  vols.     Vienna,  1906-190S. 


66  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

with  ours,  to  substitute  for  perverse  and  objectionable 
tendencies  those  that  lead  through  self-control  and  grow- 
ing self-respect  to  ready  acceptance  of  expert  guidance,  to 
methodical  and  accurate  performance.  Our  method  of 
approach  is  more  in  sympathy  with  the  tendency  to  a  gen- 
erous uplift,  and  we  would  not,  even  if  we  could,  abandon 
it.  We  regard  it  as  the  teacher's  privilege,  seeing  that  he 
is  the  more  mature,  the  more  experienced  person,  to  fore- 
stall deUnquency,  insubordination,  rather  than  sit  in  judg- 
ment when  wrongdoing  becomes  apparent.  An  opti- 
mistic attitude  toward  the  young  it  is  the  duty'  of  the 
teacher  to  cultivate ;  the  American  school  teacher  has 
fortunately  abandoned  the  Rhadamanthine  frame  of 
mind.  Firmness  in  control,  the  maintenance  of  dignity 
and  authority  must  not  be  sacrificed,  but  it  is  well  to  act 
on  the  belief  that  violations  of  school  discipline  are  in 
the  main  due  to  carelessness,  to  the  irresponsibility  of 
youth.  In  this  respect  the  saving  grace  of  humor  is 
one  of  the  teacher's  most  precious  assets ;  more  than 
any  other  quality  it  marks  the  possession  of  a  broadly 
humane  spirit ;  it  irradiates  the  seriousness  of  the  class 
exercise.^ 

If  we  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  education  as  a  leaven 
of  good  breeding,  of  gentle  manners,  and  appreciate  the 
value  of   habit,  we   as  teachers  must  substantiate  our 

» Colvin,  Stephen  S.,  "  The  Educational  Value  of  Humor,"  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  XIV,  pp.  517-524. 


THE   TEACHER  67 

belief  by  the  practice  of  all  the  arts  that  will  make  the 
schoolroom  the  center  of  decorous,  animated  coopera- 
tion in  the  object  for  which  we  strive.  Our  pupils 
appreciate  sympathy  that  is  not  maudlin,  affection  that 
does  not  degenerate  into  favoritism,  confidence  that  calls 
forth  the  very  best  efforts  to  which  the  pupil  can  rise ; 
they  realize  the  worth  of  the  teacher's  conscientious 
endeavor  to  attune  his  requirements  to  individual  peculi- 
arities. Intuitively  they  recognize  the  meaning  of  the 
teacher's  discriminating  judgments;  they  know  when 
these  judgments  are  the  outcome  of  a  painstaking  study 
of  individuality  in  certain  pupils,^  and  they  distinguish 
them  from  unwise  partisanship. 

The  aim  of  discipline  should  be  to  establish  class  con- 
ditions that  will  secure  full  value  from  good  methods  of 
instruction.  That  is  a  superficial  discipline  whose  char- 
acteristics are  supposed  to  be  achieved  when  the  ex- 
ternal evidences  of  order  and  attention  are  established, 
when  the  physical  attitude  of  pupils  seems  to  indicate 
concentration  on  the  duty  of  the  hour.  But  we  all 
know  how  delusive  is  this  apparent  attention ;  below 
this  semblance  of  correct  bearing  may  lurk  any  amount 
of  mental  absenteeism,  and  the  temptation  to  feign  at- 
tention whilst   the    mind    goes    a-wandering,   seems   to 

■  '• 

^  An  interesting  German  study  of  pupil  individuality  is  contained 
in  Brinkmann,  E.,  Uber  Iiidividnaliidtsbtlder  {Schulercharakteristiken). 
Gotha,  1892. 


68  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

thrive  on  this  acceptance  of  the  outward  signs  of  con- 
formity. If  teachers  would  but  reahze  that  they  are 
largely  responsible  by  their  very  insistence  on  these  ex- 
ternals for  the  habit  of  divided  attention  which  is  the 
most  serious  drawback  in  the  classroom.  John  Dewey 
says : ^  — 

"  I  do  not  see  how  any  one  at  all  famiUar  with  the 
great  mass  of  existing  school  work  can  deny  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  pupils  are  gradually  forming  habits 
of  divided  attention.  If  the  teacher  is  skillful  and  wide- 
awake, if  she  is  what  is  termed  a  good  disciplinarian, 
the  child  will  indeed  learn  to  keep  his  senses  intent  in 
certain  ways,  but  he  will  also  learn  to  direct  the  fruitful 
imagery,  which  constitutes  the  value  of  what  is  before 
his  senses,  in  totally  other  directions.  It  would  not  be 
wholly  palatable  to  have  to  face  the  actual  psychologi- 
cal condition  of  the  majority  of  the  pupils  that  leave 
our  schools.  We  should  find  this  division  of  attention 
and  the  resulting  disintegration  so  great  that  we  might 
cease  teaching  in  sheer  disgust.  None  the  less,  it  is 
well  for  us  to  recognize  that  this  state  of  thing  exists, 
and  that  it  is  the  inevitable  outcome  of  those  conditions 
which  require  the  simulation  of  attention  without  re- 
quiring its  essence." 

The  old-time  indications  of  the  rigid  position  of  every 

1  Dewey,  John,  "  Interest  in  Relation  to  Training  the  Will,"  Second 
Herbart  Yearbook,  1895,  pp.  9-11. 


THE   TEACHER  69 

class  member,  of  rhythmic  uniformity  in  response,  do 
not  constitute  the  soul  of  attention.  Genuine  discipline 
may  be  less  formal,  less  effective  externally,  but  it 
strives  for  the  substance,  rather  than  the  outward  mani- 
festation. It  cannot  be  indifferent  to  the  necessity  of 
correct  bearing,  of  prompt  responsiveness,  of  specific 
attention  to  duty ;  it  secures  habits  of  precision,  be- 
cause it  realizes  their  value,  by  superior  generalship, 
not  by  official  proclamation  ;  but  it  regards  all  of  these 
as  the  substructure  merely,  to  be  built  upon,  to  be  de- 
pended upon.  The  interest  aroused  by  the  teacher  in 
his  subject,  partly  by  his  own  manner  and  his  person- 
ality, partly  by  the  disclosure  of  its  manifold  relation- 
ships, its  connotation,  will  do  away  with  many  of  the 
ills  of  formal  discipline.  Violations  of  discipline,  largely 
due  to  lack  of  interest  in  the  teacher  and  in  his  subject, 
become  less  frequent,  less  attractive  to  a  class  whose 
native  desire  to  know  and  to  do,  the  teacher  has  the  art 
to  captivate  for  the  legitimate  ends  of  concerted  and 
individual  effort.  The  demands  upon  the  teacher  as 
initiator  of  new  processes  of  thought  are  vastly  more 
absorbing  than  under  the  older  methods  of  discipline, 
but  he  finds  compensation  in  the  genuineness  of  re- 
sponse. 

The  virility  of  the  teacher,  howe'^^er,  as  has  already 
been  indicated  in  the  preceding  pages,  implies  some- 
thing more   than   physical   energy  —  it  cannot  be  sep- 


JO  THE   AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

arated  from  the  possession  of  certain  moral  qualifica- 
tions through  which  educational  influence  is  palpably 
exerted.  The  maturing  boy  and  girl,  striving  to  fill 
acceptably  a  place  in  the  social  organism,  are  prone 
to  pattern  their  behavior,  their  performance,  on  models 
that  their  daily  contact  brings  prominently  before  them. 
The  types  of  conduct  that  the  elders  of  their  family 
circle,  their  parents  or  their  kindred,  reveal,  provide  ex- 
amples for  imitation  and  emulation ;  but  the  model  is 
drawn  from  a  narrow  sphere,  one  that  to  the  child  stands 
apart  from  the  great  outside  world.  What  are  the 
standards  of  this  outside  world  whose  measure  it  means 
to  take  .''  It  may  duplicate  the  performance  of  its  peers, 
but  they  like  itself  have  not  met  the  brunt  of  actual  life. 
The  teacher  is,  of  the  adults  outside  of  the  family, 
the  one  in  whom  it  has  occasion  to  observe  most  con- 
tinuously the  relation  of  ideals  to  performance ;  his 
specific  mission,  as  the  pupil  sees  it,  is  the  advancement 
of  the  latter's  capacities.  How  in  the  performance  of 
this  specific  task  does  he  reveal  himself  ?  Is  he  simply 
a  purveyor  of  information,  or  does  he  represent  in  him- 
self the  flowering  of  intelligence  into  character  ?  He 
tells  his  pupils  of  ideals,  of  the  value  of  knowledge,  of 
the  service  of  the  well-informed  man  to  a  society  that 
needs  his  aid ;  by  precept  and  illustration  he  impresses 
upon  them  the  part  that  self-control,  unselfishness,  loy- 
alty, gentle  manners,  energy,  and  initiative  play  in  the 


THE   TEACHER  7 1 

record  of  human  performance.  Does  he  exemplify  in 
himself  what  he  predicates  as  the  desirable  attainment  ? 
Is  he  self-contained,  true,  just,  persistent,  cheerful  in 
the  performance  of  his  duty  ?  Does  he  actually  culti- 
vate ideals,  is  he  self-sacrificing,  loyal  to  his  calling  ? 
Is  he  at  once  firm  and  humane  in  regard  to  his  own 
duties,  and  appreciative  of  sincere  endeavor  ?  ^  The 
emphasis  with  which  the  teacher  presents  his  ideals  of 
conduct  and  attainment  invite  the  application  by  the 
pupil  of  severe  criteria  of  judgment;  what  the  teacher 
so  convincingly  discusses  must  have  developed  convic- 
tion in  him.  And  so,  more  than  by  what  he  preaches, 
the  secondary  teacher  influences  by  what  he  does,  by 
what  he  is. 

Without  the  power  of  analyzing  the  reasons  of  their 
own  judgments,  our  pupils  apply  unconsciously,  but 
passionately,  standards  of  their  own  to  our  perform- 
ances. Does  our  manner  in  the  classroom,  our  habit 
of  speech  correspond  to  the  ideal  to  which  we  try 
to  stimulate  them .-'  We  inculcate  tactfulness  in  the 
relations  of  life ;  do  our  own  lives  evidence  generous 
deference,  loyalty,  innate  courtesy  toward  our  colleagues 
and  our  superiors  ?  The  careless  word,  the  flippant 
comment,  the  querulous  sigh  are  significant  and  danger- 
ous revelations  of  the  teacher's  inner  self  to  his  pupils. 

1  Benson,  Arthur  C,  The  Upton  Letters,  pp.  32,  34,  42,  52.  Putnam, 
1906. 


72  THE   AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Our  ideals  may  not  be  fully  understood  by  youth,  our 
frailties,  however,  they  easily  fathom.  It  follows  that 
glaring  discrepancies  between  the  teacher's  utterances 
on  morals  and  conduct  ex  cathedra,  and  his  incidental 
revelation  of  self  are  most  unfortunate  in  their  influ- 
ence on  the  adolescent ;  coming  at  a  time  when  the 
young  soul  is  particularly  susceptible  and  is  ready  to  pat- 
tern itself  upon  lives,  harmonious  in  their  consistency, 
the  influence  of  the  secondary  teacher  may  transcend  in 
its  consequences  all  other  external  forces.  The  gravity 
of  the  situation  is  indeed  critical,  and  affects  powerfully 
a  question  that  is  at  the  present  day  constantly  dis- 
cussed—  that  of  moral  instruction  versus  moral  training. 
We  are  all  agreed  as  to  the  desirability  of  morally 
influencing  our  young  people  in  and  through  the 
school ;  it  is  freely  admitted  that  the  home  which 
should  be  by  its  nature  the  fountainhead  of  moral 
training,  is  increasingly  inclined  to  delegate  to  the 
school  a  duty  which  it  often  finds  itself  incapable  of 
performing,  whether  from  lack  of  time  (!),  of  inclina- 
tion, or  of  sufficient  intelligence.  What  shall  the  school 
do  in  the  face  of  this  added  responsibility  .<•  It  ought  to 
intrust  work  of  this  most  delicate  nature,  that  goes 
more  than  aught  else  to  the  making  of  the  perfect  man 
or  woman,  to  none  but  those  who  have  given  proof  of 
their  appropriateness  for  the  task.  But  how  are  we  to 
determine  such  fitness .-'     We  know  how  to  test  after  a 


THE   TEACHER  73 

fashion  capacity  to  convey  the  subject  matter  of  geog- 
raphy, algebra,  Latin,  to  young  minds  ;  but  what  is  the 
subject  matter  involved  in  moral  teaching,  and  how 
prove  our  ability  to  teach  it  ?  Will  competitive  exami- 
nation-tests answer  ?  Are  there  elementary  and  ad- 
vanced courses  of  moral  instruction,  for  some  of  which 
our  teachers  are  quaHfied,  and  not  for  others  ?  Does 
even  a  high  personal  moral  standard  insure  a  judicious 
inculcation  of  the  same  standard  in  others  ?  Is  it,  in  a 
word,  wise  to  make  moral  instruction  (ethical  instruc- 
tion is  often  used  as  a  designation  to  differentiate 
it  from  religious  instruction)  a  specific  subject  of  the 
curriculum,  to  be  developed  by  chapter  and  paragraph, 
with  specially  prepared  text,  commentary,  and  illustra- 
tion ?  There  is  a  well-founded  reluctance  among  the 
best  educators  against  moral  instruction  as  a  subject  in 
the  curriculum.  The  delicacy  of  the  problem,  the  dan- 
ger of  vulgarizing  things  moral  by  elaborate  processes 
of  dissection  and  analysis  into  their  component  parts, 
of  a  possibly  mechanical  acceptance  of  nice  distinctions, 
of  a  lip  service  by  teachers  whose  souls  are  not  in  true 
sympathy  with  the  course,  these  and  similar  consid- 
erations are  urged  against  formal  moral  instruction. 
France  furnishes  a  notable  example  of  the  fatuity  of 
such  a  discipline.  It  has  banished  religious  instruction 
from  its  national  schools,  and,  feeling  the  need  of  an 
official  substitute,   has  introduced   a  code  of   officially 


74  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

prepared  lessons,  instruction  in  which  it  is  compulsory 
upon  the  teachers  to  give,  upon  the  pupils  to  receive. 
Remembering  that  it  is  enjoined  upon  a  generation  of 
teachers,  many  of  whom  are  by  conviction  hostile  to  it, 
we  can  well  imagine  what  degree  of  sincerity  charac- 
terizes its  presentation.  An  official  pronouncement  on 
the  moral  code,  with  official  elaboration  of  a  text  at- 
tached to  specifically  prepared  illustrative  material,  and 
culminating  in  prescribed  proverbs  or  verse  groups  to 
clinch  the  general  exposition  —  this  it  is  according  to 
French  ideas  to  develop  moral  standards  in  the  young. 

The  official  statement  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion prescribes  that  the  course  of  Practical  Ethics  is  to 
consist  of  "  systematic  readings,  recitations,  and  talks 
planned  to  strengthen  sentiment  favorable  to  moral  de- 
velopment and  to  counteract  opposite  tendencies."  ' 

M.  Croiset's  words  below  express  distinctly  what  the 
school  can  undertake  as  moral  training  in  contrast  to 
moral  instruction.  Moral  training  of  this  kind  has 
never  been  wholly  absent  from  the  school ;  from  the 
days  of  Plato  on,  in  the  teachings  of  the  great  school- 
masters of  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation, 
in   the    motives    that    impelled    the    Prussian    schools 

1  Cf.  Farrington,  French  Secondary  Schools,  pp.  298-300,  and  espe- 
cially the  quotation  from  Croiset,  Dean  of  the  Sorbonne,  that  "  the 
best  lesson  is  perhaps  that  which  occupies  no  fixed  time  in  the  school 
program,  but  which  comes  forth  spontaneously,  naively,  from  the  very 
personality  of  the  teacher  and  from  all  his  words." 


THE   TEACHER  75 

to  develop  both  intellectual  culture  and  the  spiritual 
gifts  of  youth  "  rousing  and  nourishing  every  noble 
principle  of  life,"  everywhere  there  is  a  recognition  of 
the  twofold  mission  of  the  teacher ;  he  shapes  his 
pupils  by  what  he  knows,  by  what  he  is. 

Stronger  than  any  specific  moral  deductions,  than  any 
rules  of  conduct  drawn  from  the  subject  matter  of  the 
classroom,  from  the  contingencies  of  the  school  organism, 
there  are  at  work  the  influences  that  emanate  from  the 
teacher's  bearing,  from  his  unconscious  revelation  of  self 
in  speech  and  action.  It  is  not  desirable  to  gird  oneself 
for  the  inculcation  of  moral  ideals  at  certain  hours  and 
in  certain  subjects  ;  the  opportunities  for  ethical  judg- 
ments, for  the  establishment  of  a  strong  moral  influence 
are  no  more  obvious  in  connection  with  the  teaching  of 
literature  and  history  than  with  science  and  mathe- 
matics ;  they  may  issue  from  the  experiences  of  the 
laboratory  and  the  shop,  the  gymnasium  and  the  school 
kitchen.  The  value  of  such  opportunities  lies  in  the 
freedom  with  which  they  are  introduced ;  the  very 
unexpectedness  of  the  connection  estabhshed  is  apt  to 
fix  the  impression.  Let  pupils  suspect  that  the  teacher 
regards  history  as  the  medium  to  which  he  can  most 
readily  attach  moral  reflections,  and  they  will  develop  a 
justifiable  distaste  for  the  subject,  justifiable  because  the 
pupils  realize  that  the  ostensible  pursuit  of  the  subject 
subserves  another  and  remoter  end. 


76  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Truth,  honesty,  self-control,  obedience  to  a  higher  law, 
unselfishness,  a  sense  of  duty,  these  and  whatever  other 
qualities  reflect  the  spirit  of  morality  are  as  powerfully  im- 
pressed by  the  force  of  example,  by  the  implicit  procedure 
in  the  corporate  life  of  the  school,  which  the  thoughtful 
teacher  constantly  molds,  as  by  explicit  moral  disquisi- 
tion ;  the  spontaneous  character  of  the  moral  deduction, 
its  incidental  appropriateness,  gives  it  its  strength. 
And  some  of  the  most  lasting  impressions,  we  may  be 
sure,  are  conveyed  when  we  desist  from  the  tempting 
occasion  for  moral  inferences,  and  allow  a  given  impulse 
to  work  itself  out  unaided  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
pupil ;  is  it  not  what  our  great  literary  artists  are  con- 
stantly doing?  Is  it  not  the  highest  type  of  moral 
teaching  when  they  invite  the  reader  to  penetrate 
through  the  outer  garb  of  incident  and  narrative  to  the 
profounder  moral  truth  that  underlies,  a  truth  that  they 
refrain  from  formulating  in  so  many  words  ?  There  is 
something  grossly  repellant  to  me  in  the  very  wording 
of  the  argument  for  direct  moral  instruction  that  it  is 
the  business  of  the  moral  instructor  in  the  public  school 
to  deliver  to  his  pupils  the  subject  matter  of  morality!' 

1 1.    Myers,  "  Moral  Training  in  the  School,"  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
XIII,  pp.  409^60. 

2.  Sadler,   Sir  Michael,  Moral  Instruction  and  Training  in  Schools^ 

2  vols.     Longmans. 

3.  Moral  Training  in  the  Public  Schools,  five  California  prize  essays  ; 

especially  the  essay  of  Mr.  Rugh,  p.  8  et  passim.     Ginn  &  Co., 
1907. 


THE   TEACHER  77 

What  a  responsibility,  what  a  danger  !  The  path  of 
safety,  of  wisdom,  and  of  modesty  on  the  part  of  the  teacher 
is  distinctly  outlined  in  a  series  of  notable  utterances  to 
which  attention  is  here  called  at  some  length  because  of 
the  momentousness  of  the  subject.  In  his  "  Imitation  in 
Education "  (Columbia  contributions  to  Philosophy, 
vol.  8),  Mr.  Jasper  Newton  Deahl  says,  p.  71  :  "  There  is 
a  vitalizing  force  in  example,  not  found  in  prec-ept;  in 
the  facility  with  which  exaviple  may  be  used,  lies  its 
superior  value." 

William  James,  Talks  to  Teachers,  p.  217:  "Uncon- 
scious as  are  our  routine  performances  in  life  which  yet 
reveal  our  innermost  character,  so  they  act  uncon- 
sciously in  forming  the  moral  character  of  the  pupil." 

Professor  Palmer  of  Harvard,  Forum,  XIV,  p.  873 : 
"  The  attempt  to  secure  morality  by  instruction  is  not 
only  futile  but  pernicious ;  behavior  can  no  more  be 
taught  by  rule  than  can  correct  speech." 

In  a  chapter  on  "  Direct  Moral  Teaching  "  (in  vol.  X 
of  Eng.  Spec.  Reports)  the  writer,  Mr.  H.  Thiselton 
Mark,  quotes  from  a  lecture  of  Dr.  Nicholas  Murray 
Butler  :  "As  to  the  demand  for  more  moral  teaching  of 
the  formal,  didactic,  specific  kind,  there  was  in  his  judg- 
ment no  greater  waste  of  time  in  schools  than  this ;  be- 
cause this  sort  of  instruction,  if  anything  is  to  be  made  of 
it,  involves  a  prepared  habit  of  mind  which  is  beyond  the 
capacity  of  children  still  at  school."     That  this  formal 


78  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

method  tends  to  breed  intellectual  dishonesty,  a  tend- 
ency in  pupils  to  say  what  they  think  their  teachers  ex- 
pect them  to  say,  is  a  danger  apparent  even  to  an 
otherwise  sympathetic  observer;  Mr.  Mark  (p.  117 
above),  speaking  of  such  conscious  moral  instruction, 
notes  the  criticism  :  "  It  is  apt  to  conduce  somewhat  to 
a  new  element  of  illiberalism  in  education ;  "  certainly, 
one  can  regard  with  more  equanimity  the  mechanical 
repetition  of  an  acquired  terminology  in  grammar  or 
mathematics  than  an  acquired  series  of  stock  phrases 
on  questions  of  moral  import. 

Gilbert,  Educational  Review ^  February,  1902,  pp.  136 
ff.,  says:  "  Narrow  special  training  in  morals  is  danger- 
ous :  it  magnifies  conventionality  and  too  often  makes 
glib  self-satisfied  hypocrites  and  judges  of  others.  It 
needs  to  be  seasoned  with  salt." 

Against  the  practical  outcome  of  this  method  one 
cannot  protest  too  energetically.  To  treat  a  fairy  story, 
a  fable  with  the  distinct  purpose  of  making  explicit 
what  is  implicit  in  it,  is  to  pervert  one  of  the  most 
valuable  outgrowths  of  human  phantasy  to  the  purely 
didactic  point  of  view ;  it  reminds  one  of  the  distorted 
image  of  the  ^Esopian  fable  in  the  wig-and-powder  con- 
ventionality of  Lafontaine  which  attaches  its  banal 
morality  to  this  masquerade  of  French  statesmen, 
monarchs,  and  dainty  ladies  in  the  guise  of  an  animal 
world.     When   emotional   experience   is   compelled   or 


THE   TEACHER  79 

directed,  no  room  is  left  for  spontaneous  emotion  of  the 
pupil ;  it  is  inevitable  that  with  such  a  method  the  fable, 
the  story,  even  the  historical  episode,  will  be  chosen  be- 
cause of  its  aptitude  for  the  purpose  in  hand.  But 
"  history,"  says  a  German  writer,  "  is  not  a  collection  of 
examples  to  bolster  up  our  moral  tenets ;  that  degrades 
history  to  the  rank  of  a  picture  book."  ^ 

The  school  itself  in  its  daily  routine,  in  the  relation 
of  pupil  to  teacher,  of  pupil  to  fellow  pupil,  and  to  the 
demands  of  the  larger  social  organization,  in  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  pupil  to  his  own  higher  self,  affords 
ample  occasion  for  the  awakening  and  strengthening  of 
the  moral  sense.  There  cannot  be  formulated  in  a  set 
of  hard  and  fast  lines,  what  particular  phases  of  the 
moral  code  can  be  attached  to  the  one  or  the  other 
subject  of  the  curriculum.  It  is  pedantry  to  associate 
conceptions  of  order,  neatness,  accuracy,  persistence 
with  the  teaching  of  mathematics,  and  the  doctrines  of 
altruism,  of  deference,  of  obedience,  of  self-control  with 
the  studies  in  the  literary  and  historical  group ;  an  in- 
cident of  the  classroom  may  suffice  to  fill  the  individual 
occurrence  with  a  larger  meaning,  and  to  substitute  for 
the  unconsidered,  involuntary  reaction  a  reasoned  moral 
conviction. 

The   Terentian    "  Homo    sum :    nihil   humani   a  me 

1  Cf.  a  noteworthy  contribution  to  this  subject,  full  of  striking 
thought,  by  President  Faunce,  Educational  Review,  April,  1903. 


8o  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

alienum  puto,"  rather  than  any  code  or  organized  line 
of  procedure,  constitutes  the  basis  of  the  teacher's 
moral  influence.  What  he  is,  he  infuses  into  his  teach- 
ing. One  cannot  be  manly,  loyal,  patient,  untiring  in 
effort,  susceptible  to  ideals  —  and  a  teacher  —  without 
experiencing  the  overwhelming  impulse  to  foster  the 
same  tendencies  in  one's  pupils ;  an  isolation  of  one's 
own  aspirations  that  would  exclude  the  possibility  of 
their  reproduction  in  the  pupil  is  absolutely  incongru- 
ous in  a  teacher;  what  Palmer^  in  his  essay.  The  Ideal 
Teacher,  describes  as  the  elimination  of  one's  personal- 
ity, the  readiness  to  be  forgotten,  is  the  fate,  and  the 
joy,  of  the  teacher.  It  is  not,  as  often  in  the  case  of 
the  parent,  an  instinctive  tendency,  but  a  plan  based  on 
moral  insight  that  shapes  the  teacher's  efforts  towards 
the  efficiency  in  character  of  his  pupils,  and  he  is 
triumphant  when  his  guidance  has  resulted  in  the 
achievement  of  a  self-control  that  gives  assurance  of 
persistence,  long  after  his  guiding  hand  has  been  with- 
drawn ;  to  Vwe,  in  the  lives  of  one's  pupils  is  the  ulti- 
mate test  of  a  teacher's  influence. 

Rules,  formulas,  wise  saws  will  not  help  to  shape 
moral  conduct ;  the  knowledge  of  what  is  right  does  not 

1  Palmer,  George  II.,  T/ie  Teacher,  pp.  26  ff.  Boston.  1908.  "  A  teacher 
does  not  live  for  himself,  but  for  his  pupil  and  the  truth  which  he  im- 
parts." Cf.  Hollister,  Horace  A.,  High  School  Administration  (chap. 
XVI,  Moral  and  Religious  Training,  with  bibliography).  D.  C.  Heath 
&  Co.,  1909. 


THE   TEACHER  8l 

make  right  attractive.  Conveyed  as  a  discipline,  the 
principles  of  moral  conduct  will  evoke  little  response. 
The  intangible,  indefinable  combination  of  qualities  that 
produce  an  harmonious  personality,  if  this  does  not  im- 
press the  young,  then  no  theoretic  exposition  of  moral 
doctrine  will  exert  the  slightest  influence. 

It  has  been  urged  that  if  moral  training  confined  itself 
to  the  formation  of  habits,  which  the  pupil  saw  illustrated 
in  the  conduct  of  his  teachers,  it  would  occupy  an  inferior 
position  in  the  scheme  of  the  pupil's  development,  for 
as  a  merely  imitative  process,  it  would  attach  itself  to 
concrete  performances  of  the  teacher,  and  the  pupil 
would  be  at  a  loss  how  to  act  when  his  model  had  not 
furnished  a  concrete  illustration.  No  sensible  teacher, 
however,  would  be  content  with  ethical  standards,  based 
merely  on  habit ;  the  appeal  to  the  intelligence  must  be 
made,  if  broader  views  for  the  conduct  of  hfe  are  to 
be  created.  The  all-important  point  is  that  the  pupil 
will  respond  to  this  appeal  only  if  he  finds  consonance 
between  maxim  and  conduct  in  the  daily  Hfe  of  his 
teacher.  Your  pupil  is  much  more  likely  to  accept  on 
faith  the  teacher's  statement  on  any  fact  of  Latin  acci- 
dence, or  on  Avogadro's  law  than  on  any  principle  of 
moral  conduct ;  he  applies  the  arginnentiim  ad  honii- 
nem,  and  doubts  the  value  of  moral  doctrine  that  has 
not  touched  the  life  of  its  present  advocate. 

It  is  the  definiteness  of  prescription  affecting  alike 


82  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  requirement,  to  which 
thoughtful  educators  object.  Formulation  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  conduct,  according  to  the  French  system,  is 
only  to  a  degree  less  objectionable  than  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  code  of  religious  instruction  such  as  is  pre- 
scribed for  the  German  schools.  From  our  point  of 
view,  the  requirement  in  religious  teaching,  as  outhned 
in  the  Lehrpldne  imd  Lehraufgaben  (curricula  and  pro- 
grams of  work)  of  the  German  higher  schools,  has 
been  the  vulnerable  point  in  their  school  system.  It 
has  been  the  topic  through  which  the  church  still 
maintains  its  hold  upon  the  state  organization  of  the 
schools ;  a  close  study  of  the  character  of  the  prescrip- 
tion shows  a  greater  or  diminishing  stringency  in  inter- 
pretation according  to  the  fluctuations  between  various 
degrees  of  religious  conservatism. 

Stringent,  however,  the  requirement  always  is,  even  at 
its  best.  Inasmuch  as  it  compels  the  teacher  to  become 
the  official  propounder  of  a  definite  attitude  on  religious 
questions,  whatever  otherwise  his  personal  tendencies  and 
convictions  may  be,  it  has  worked  distinct  harm ;  in  an 
age  of  increasing  critical  spirit  with  respect  to  all  dogma, 
it  has  compelled  the  teacher  to  constitute  himself  the 
exponent  of  a  conservative  dogmatism,  to  proclaim  as 
his  own  belief  doctrine  which,  as  a  man  and  not  as  a 
teacher,  he  may  not  freely  accept.  No  wonder  that  the 
charge   of   hypocrisy   is   raised   against   much   of  this 


THE   TEACHER  83 

teaching,  unless  refuge  is  sought  by  the  teacher  in  a 
soulless,  outward  conformity  which  cannot  impress,  be- 
cause it  resorts  to  subterfuges  of  interpretation. 

"  The  man,"  says  Dr.  Reinhardt,  "  whose  heart  is 
cold  spreads  chilly  indifference  around  him.  Even  re- 
ligion, that  tenderest  and  finest  subject  of  instruction, 
can  be  so  handled  by  an  unskillful  teacher  as  to  be- 
come hurtful  rather  than  profitable."  ^  And  how  much 
more  serious  the  harm,  if  he  lacks  genuineness.  And 
yet  the  Notes  on  Method  in  the  Lehrpldne  impress  upon 
the  teachers  that  "  the  primary  condition  of  success  lies 
in  the  living  personality  of  the  teacher  and  in  his 
s^t2i\img  out  of  the  fuhiess  of  his  heart.'' ^  The  fetters 
thus  imposed  upon  the  teacher  have  weakened  in  many 
cases  his  general  influence  in  homes  where  sincerity 
and  manly  outspoken  conviction  are  prized  above  all, 
and  it  has  led  in  some  parts  of  Germany,  on  the  part  of 
teachers,  to  organized  protest  against  doctrinal  dictation 
imposed  upon  them.  A  significant  document  of  this 
kind  is  Religions-unterricht,  edited  by  Fritz  Gansb^g, 
Leipzig,  1906,  2.  pro  memoria  of  the  teachers  of  Bremen, 
fortified  by  expressions  of  lay  opinion  from  leaders  of 
thought  in  various  vocations. 

1  For  entire  quotation  cf.  Engl.  Spec.  Reports,  III,  p.  102. 

'  Cf.  Paulsen,  Allgemeine  Grundlagen  der  Kultur  der  Gegenwartf^.^'h. 
Teubner,  1906;  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des  GeleArten  C/nterrichts,  II, 
pp.  503-506;  Engl.  Spec.  Reports,  III,  pp.  262-265  (translation  of 
Lehrpldne). 


84  THE   AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

That  "the  teacher  is  the  school"  holds,  then,  above 
all  in  the  matter  of  his  moral  influence  on  the  pupil ; 
his  personality,  his  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong,  his 
sensitiveness  as  to  standards  of  action,  react  inevitably 
somehow  on  his  pupils,  however  unresponsive  they  may 
be.  No  type  of  moral  education,  whether  it  be  under- 
taken in  the  form  of  instruction  or  of  training,  can  dis- 
place the  effect  of  the  teacher's  own  moral  standards. 

To  sum  up,  in  our  advocacy  of  a  higher  type  of 
teacher  we  have  in  mind  the  need  of  teachers,  superior 
in  intellectual  equipment,  in  physical  poise,  and  in 
strength  of  moral  character.  How  to  secure  them,  how 
to  recognize  them,  how  to  encourage  their  accession  in 
increasing  numbers  to  the  profession,  is  the  problem  of 
the  American  secondary  school. 


PART    II 

CHAPTER   I 
The  Present  Status  of  the  Public  High  School 

The  historical  development  of  the  secondary  school 
in  the  United  States  has  been  satisfactorily  traced  from 
its  earliest  appearance  to  its  present  status  in  Ex- 
Commissioner  Brown's  (Elmer  E.  Brown)  The  Making 
of  our  Middle  Schools  ;  to  this  work,  therefore,  and  its 
detailed  treatment  students  of  this  line  of  inquiry  are 
referred.  A  brief  resum6  of  its  argument  may  be 
found  in  various  recent  treatises,  among  them  in  Chap- 
ter I  of  J.  F.  Brown's  TJie  American  High  School  (The 
Macmillan  Company,  1909). 

It  will  suffice,  therefore,  to  recall  that  the  Latin 
grammar  school  of  the  early  Colonial  days  has  passed 
out  of  existence,  that  the  academy,  offering  at  first  a 
wider  range  of  subjects  than  the  Latin  school,  a  range 
calculated  to  furnish  practical  preparation  for  life,  has 
in  the  last  half  century  concentrated  its  efforts  upon 
those  studies  that  constitute  college  preparation,  and 
that  the  field  of  secondary  instruction  in  its  fullest 
sense  is  to-day  the  province  of   the   free   public   high 

85 


86  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

school.  The  last  mentioned  type  of  school  was  not 
intended  from  its  inception  as  a  surrogate  for  the  pri- 
vate or  endowed  preparatory  school,  but  rather  as  a 
superstructure  to  the  public  elementary  school,  "  to 
render  the  present  system  of  public  education  more 
nearly  perfect."  ^  It  was  intended  that  it  should  re- 
semble in  its  practical  tendencies  the  early  academy, 
with  similar  cultural  aims,  but  it  was  to  be  controlled  by 
representatives  of  the  communities  that  bore  the  ex- 
pense and  offered  its  opportunities  free  to  those  who 
had  completed  the  public  grammar  schools. 

Several  causes,  prominent  among  them  (i)  the  ambi- 
tions of  most  communities  to  make  their  public  high 
school  an  effective  avenue  of  approach  to  the  colleges,  and 
(2)  the  lack  of  definiteness  in  the  arrangement  and  se- 
quence of  the  so-called  cultural  courses,  taken  together 
with  the  very  definite  demands  of  the  colleges,  con- 
spired to  make  the  college  preparatory  course  the 
standard  of  attainment,  the  measure  of  efficiency,  in  the 
public  high  school.  We  all  recognize  the  controlling 
force  of  a  definite  goal ;  to  most  teachers  it  was  a  com- 
fort to  realize  in  exact  terms  the  termimts  ad  quern ; 
therein  lay  for  a  long  period  the  dominating  advantage 

1  1.    Report  of  Boston  School  Commission  of  1S21 ;  cf.  E.  E.  Brown, 
pp.  298  ff. 
2.   H.  H.  Morgan,  "  The  Justification  of  the  Public  High  School," 
I,  p.  629,  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1889. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      87 

of  the  college  entrance  demand.  It  is  a  repetition  of 
the  famihar  experience  that  there  is  every  advantage  in 
a  small,  but  well-organized  body  of  troops  as  against  a 
host  of  unorganized  militia.  A  little  reflection  will  con- 
vince us  that  our  difficulties  lie  not  so  much  in  the 
choice  of  subjects  as  in  the  manner  of  handling  them. 
The  supreme  desire  of  teachers  to  measure  the  attain- 
ments of  their  pupils  by  the  college  requirements 
cramps  and  narrows  the  teaching  scope ;  it  lifts  adjust- 
ment, adaptation,  into  prominence,  it  encourages  the 
methods  of  the  craftsman ;  freedom  in  method  is 
barred,  artistic  variation  is  discouraged  as  a  useless  or 
harmful  departure  from  a  standard  requirement.  The 
square  peg  forced  into  the  round  hole  indicates  the 
character  of  our  prevailing  secondary  work.  It  was  in 
the  courses  that  were  in  no  direct  relation  to  college 
requirements  that  an  active  constructive  policy  was 
desirable ;  they  offered  a  far  more  delicate  problem 
than  the  preparatory  course,  and  tempted  frequently  to 
overzealous  advance  into  the  field  of  untried  experi- 
ment, with  inevitable  reaction  when  the  experiment 
failed ;  unquestionably  a  much  wider  portion  of  the 
community  was  concerned  in  these  noncollegiate  in- 
terests which  were  often  debated  by  the  community  as 
a  whole.  Of  the  energy  and  earnestness  of  these  dis- 
cussions there  is  no  question,  but  they  do  not  always 
display  sound  judgment. 


88  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Despite  the  fact,  then,  that  even  to-day  in  many  com- 
munities the  public  high  school  is  valued  primarily  for  its 
college  preparatory  course,  there  has  been  growing  a  con- 
viction that  the  conception  of  the  secondary  school  in- 
volves a  wider,  a  more  generous  outlook  than  that  of  the 
equipment  of  a  small  minority  of  the  student  body  for  the 
demands  of  the  colleges.  The  work  of  the  statistician  has 
revealed  to  us  that  of  the  total  number  in  attendance  in 
our  secondary  schools  an  exceedingly  small  percentage 
enter  college,  a  very  considerable  percentage  have 
not  intended  to  enter.  The  secondary  school  has  not 
fulfilled  its  duty,  unless  it  considers  the  needs  of  all 
who  are  ready  to  share  in  its  opportunities.  Its  respon- 
sibility to  the  community,  to  the  State  as  the  aggregate 
of  its  citizens,  requires  that  it  shall  provide  for  all  in 
attendance  the  kind  of  instruction  appropriate  to  their 
capacities  and  valuable  for  their  future  efficiency. 
The  questions  at  issue  must  be  determined  by  those 
most  familiar  with  the  tendencies  and  powers  and 
limitations  of  adolescents,  by  the  teachers,  principals, 
superintendents  of  the  secondary  schools. 

The  requirements  by  which  fitness  for  the  prosecution 
of  college  studies  can  be  determined  are  very  properly 
stipulated  by  college  officers,^  and  it  is  very  natural  and 

*  Even  under  the  accrediting  system  they  exercise  this  privilege  of 
judgment  in  the  first  term  of  the  Freshman  year  with  students  ac- 
cepted on  certificate.     In  its  suggestive  new  plan  of  entrance  examin- 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      89 

proper  that  in  some  form  or  other  they  will  never  forego 
the  privilege  of  pronouncing  judgment  in  this  respect. 
But  the  question  of  satisfactory  curricula  for  its  several 
groups  of  studies  must  rest  with  the  teachers  of  the  sec- 
ondary school.  It  is  idle  to  expect  those  whose  activities 
are  not  primarily  concerned  with  the  secondary  school 
to  construct  final  and  authoritative  programs  for  this 
purpose. 

In  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten,^  pp.  51,  52, 
we  find  enunciated  the  sound  doctrine :  "A  secondary 
school  program  intended  for  national  use  must  be  made 
for  those  children  whose  education  is  not  to  be  pur- 
sued beyond  the  high  school.  The  preparation  of  a 
few  pupils  for  college  or  scientific  school  should  in  the 
ordinary  secondary  school  be  the  incidental  and  not  the 
principal,  object."  The  statement,  however,  further  on, 
that  "  the  colleges  and  scientific  schools  of  the  country 
should  accept  for  admission  to  appropriate  courses  of 
their  instruction  the  attainments  of  any  youth  who 
has  passed  creditably  through  a  good  secondary  school 
course  "  reflects  the  dominance  of  the  college  opportu- 
nity as  an  ideal.     There  is  here  an  obvious  incongruity ; 

ations  Harvard,  whilst  it  abrogates  interference  in  the  details  of  prep- 
aration at  the  secondary  school,  reserves  to  itself  emphatically  the 
right  to  pronounce  upon  the  efficiency  of  the  entering  student  for 
further  study.     {.School  Rez'iew,  pp.  412  ff.     June,  1910.) 

1  Published  for  the  National  Educational  Association  by  the  Ameri- 
can Book  Company,  1894. 


90  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

if  the  main  consideration  is  to  be  directed  upon  pupil^ 
"  whose  education  is  7iot  to  be  pursued  beyond  the  high 
school "  availability  for  college  work  ought  not  enter 
into  the  question  of  study  programs. 

What  kind  of  teaching  is  desirable  for  secondary  pupils 
of  the  adolescent  period  ?  In  what  subjects  is  our  teach- 
ing force  capable  to  carry  out  the  best  type  of  teaching  ? 
These  are,  it  seems  to  me,  the  two  leading  issues  which 
secondary  school  men  must  meet  in  the  interests  of  their 
schools.  A  revision  of  our  secondary  school  methods 
ab  avo  seems  necessary ;  we  are  confronted  by  over- 
whelming testimony  that  we  are  not  doing  justice  to  the 
95  %  of  our  students  that  do  not  continue  into  college, 
and  that  the  5  %  who  do  go,  give  but  an  unsatisfactory 
account  of  themselves  at  entrance  and  beyond.  Presi- 
dent Pritchett  (Fifth  Report,  Carnegie  Foundation, 
p.  64)  has  struck  the  keynote  of  our  difficulties.  "  The 
high  school  student  gains  a  superficial  knowledge  of 
many  subjects  and  learns  none  with  thoroughness. 
He  lacks  the  hard  fiber  of  intellectual  discipline.  .  .  . 
Education,  rightly  understood,  is  a  power-producing 
process ;  and  the  serious  indictment  against  the  sec- 
ondary school  system  to-day  is  that  its  graduates  do 
not  acquire  either  discipline  or  power ;  .  .  .  the  ideal  of 
thoroughness  must  supplant  the  ideal  of  superficiality." 
The  average  student  "  lacks  both  accuracy  and  the  abil- 
ity to  think"  (p.  50).     And  again,  "The  total  effect  is 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      9 1 

seen  in  the  unreadiness  of  the  great  mass  of  youth  to 
face  a  hard,  steady  pull,"  We  must  resist  the  unrea- 
soning popular  demand  that  we  ought  "  to  teach  some- 
thing of  a  great  many  things." 

The  secondary  school  should  work  out  an  autonomy  of 
its  own ;  it  should  not  array  itself  in  the  tatters  of  a  bor- 
rowed glory,  and  call  itself  a  People's  College  ;  that  would 
only  mean  a  cheapened  college,  attuned  to  the  level  of 
popular  demands.  Limiting  itself  to  those  subjects  for 
which  it  has  on  its  staff  teachers  of  recognized  ability, 
each  high  school  should  undertake  to  teach  those  subjects 
and  those  only ;  a  corollary  of  this  proposition  would  be 
the  elimination  of  all  topics  which  the  high  school  is  really 
not  prepared  to  teach.  A  firm  adherence  to  this  princi- 
ple would  cause  a  wholesome,  if  painful,  awakening  in 
communities  that  clamor  for  the  empty  prestige  of  a 
high  school,  but  are  not  prepared  to  pay  for  its  satis- 
factory outfit  in  teachers  and  teaching  equipment. 

It  is  intellectual  fiber,  intellectual  abihty,  then,  that 
the  secondary  teacher  must  aim  to  develop,  not  an  illu- 
sory capacity  of  routine  manipulation  in  one  or  several 
topics  that  are  supposed  to  smooth  the  path  to  voca- 
tional opportunity ;  it  were  well  to  bear  in  mind  that 
the  enslavement  to  a  narrow  utilitarian  standard  is  at 
least  as  injurious  as  the  current  bitterness  of  complaint 
against  college  domination.  A  high  school,  located  in 
an  industrial  community,   that   surrenders   its   cultural 


92  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

opportunities  to  the  specific  and  immediate  industrial 
demands  of  its  surroundings,  ought  to  reorganize  as  a 
trade  school,  preparing  for  the  special  industries  that 
happen  to  be  in  vogue ;  as  though,  forsooth,  no  other 
outlook  of  equal  or  greater  promise  existed  for  the  effi- 
cient student  of  such  a  school ! 

The  cry  everywhere  in  the  business  as  in  the  profes- 
sional world,  is  for  discipline,  for  capacity  to  do  intensive, 
hard  work,  for  mental  grasp.  It  is  felt  that  this  implies 
a  type  of  instruction,  intellectually  thorough  and  severe  ; 
industrial  and  professional  supremacy  must  be  based  on 
efficiency  in  the  schools  ;  a  merely  digital  and  manual 
dexterity  must  be  guided  by  thought,  if  it  is  to  attain  to 
effectiveness.  In  his  "  Unrest  in  Secondary  Education  " 
(Engl.  Spec.  Reports,  IX,  34),  Sadler  describes  this  type 
of  instruction  as  concerted  specialization,  differentiating 
it  from  premature  specialization.  "  The  Germans  know 
that  in  order  to  specialize  to  the  best  advantage,  nine 
men  out  of  ten  need  the  equipment  which  is  given  by  a 
good  general  education." 

Some  of  the  subjects  our  high  schools  have  intro- 
duced in  deference  to  a  vague  popular  demand  may  at 
some  future  time  be  so  presented  as  to  insure  mental 
power  rather  than  routine  facility,  but  until  then  they 
cannot  rank  in  educational  value  with  subjects  in  which 
the  experience  of  generations  of  teachers  has  developed 
the  means  of  promoting  disciplinary  power.     From  this 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      93 

Standpoint  it  was  unwise,  for  instance,  for  the  High 
School  Teachers'  Association  of  New  York  City,  in 
May,  1910,  to  demand  the  recognition  by  the  colleges 
as  distinct  subjects  of  admission,  of  stenography  and 
typewriting.  The  most  ardent  advocates  of  these  two 
subjects  cannot  claim  for  them,  as  they  are  at  present 
taught,  such  intellectual  training,  such  expansion  of  in- 
tellectual interests,  as  mathematics,  languages,  science, 
stimulate.  They  are  hardly  more  than  ancillary  in  a 
commercial  course  in  which  geography,  history,  eco- 
nomics, commercial  law  would  be  the  mentally  stimulat- 
ing subjects.  As  aforesaid,  what  is  desirable  from  the 
point  of  utihty  may  be  included  as  subsidiary  to  subjects 
that  require  and  promote  mental  power ;  being  largely 
mechanical  accomplishments,  they  fulfill  at  a  more  ad- 
vanced stage  about  the  same  function  that  penmanship 
does  in  the  elaboration  of  a  course  in  English  composi- 
tion. Whilst  therefore  these  and  other  subjects  may  be 
included  for  specific  reasons  in  some  secondary  school 
courses  "  to  equip  for  a  definite  means  of  support,"  the 
burden  of  proof  that  they  are  calculated  to  advance 
mental  grasp  rests  with  their  advocates ;  their  present 
teaching  gives  little  promise  of  such  a  result.  There 
is  no  unfairness  in  demanding  such  proof ;  the  teachers 
of  science,  of  civics,  of  household  science  and  art,  of 
economics  have  successively  been  called  upon  to  meet, 
and  have  met,  the  same  demand. 


94  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Sir  Michael  Sadler,  Engl.  Spec.  Reports,  IX,  p.  140, 
takes  this  generous  view  of  the  best  that  American 
education  stands  for:  "Among  the  best  antidotes  to 
materialism  and  selfishness  in  a  commercial  commu- 
nity are  idealism  and  self-sacrifice  in  the  schools.  A 
businesslike  idealism  is  the  characteristic  feature  of 
American  education  at  its  best.  This  combination  of 
two  great  qualities  will  protect  the  schools  from  the 
dangers  of  vulgar  utilitarianism  on  the  one  hand,  and 
from  undue  excitement,  superficiality,  and  self-adver- 
tisement on  the  other." 

It  cannot  be  stated  too  emphatically  that  it  is  the 
special  province  of  the  secondary  school  to  carry  its 
pupils  beyond  the  mere  consideration  of  the  material 
needs  of  life  to  an  appreciation  of  the  cultural  elements 
that  give  intellectual  scope,  intellectual  power.  To  com- 
prehend in  the  main  outHnes  the  progress  of  the  human 
family  socially,  morally,  intellectually,  is  a  prerequisite 
to  our  participation  in  its  vital  problems.  It  is,  how- 
ever, not  merely  the  acquisition  of  a  new  series  of 
attainments  that  gives  significance  to  the  secondary 
school  period ;  these  should  be  but  so  many  means  to 
serve  its  main  purpose. 

The  awakening  of  a  genuine  desire  for  knowledge  is 
of  surpassing  importance ;  it  prompts  to  the  first  serious 
exercise  of  the  reasoning  faculty.  The  student  inclines 
to  measure  the  bearing  of  the  past  attainments  of  the 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      95 

human  race  upon  present  conditions ;  it  is  here  that 
training  to  judgment  should  find  its  place  to  accompany 
and  dominate  informational  growth.  Observation  of  the 
adolescent  reveals  a  strong  tendency  to  the  formulation 
of  judgments  ;  it  is  an  accomplishment  fraught  with  dan- 
ger, unless  skillfully  directed  ;  here  it  is  the  teacher's 
privilege  to  guide,  though  he  will  recognize  the  delicacy 
and  difftculty  of  the  duty.  To  insist,  as  some  teachers 
and  some  textbooks  do,  at  too  early  a  stage  in  the  sec- 
ondary school  on  creative  criticism  which,  if  it  means 
anything,  involves  independent  judgment,  is  distinctly 
injurious. 

Of  the  value  of  the  training  to  judgment  there  can  be 
no  doubt;  the  more  varied  the  topics  in  which  it  is 
applied,  the  better  for  the  student.  It  may  take  the 
form  of  severely  controlled  reasoning  along  mathemati- 
cal lines,  it  may  serve  to  differentiate  hypothesis  and 
general  law,  induction  and  deduction  ;  it  should  be  a 
standing  protest  against  unmeaning  acceptance  of  re- 
ceived opinion  ;  it  insures  against  hasty  generalizations, 
makes  the  youth  discriminating  in  passing  upon  ex- 
periences that  lie  outside  the  range  of  his  studies ;  its 
beneficent  influence  will  reveal  itself  most  obviously  in 
written  and  spoken  utterance.  It  is  a  discipline  that 
makes  for  mental  power.  Upon  such  training  depends 
largely  the  intellectual  value  of  our  high  school  work  ; 
premature  judgments  are  the  accompaniments  of  super- 


96  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

ficiality  in  the  pupil  who  forms  them,  and  in  the  teacher 
who  permits  or  encourages  them.  It  is  a  serious  miscon- 
ception to  assume  that  we  can  abate  our  watchful  care 
of  the  maturing  secondary  student.  We  are  planning  to 
develop  a  finer,  rarer  product,  and  our  concern  for  his 
auspicious  growth  must  be  intensified  ;  the  ripest  experi- 
ence, the  most  painstaking  guidance  are  necessary  if  he  is 
to  blossom  out  into  a  well-balanced,  independent  thinker. 
In  discussing  the  function  of  the  secondary  school, 
various  authorities  have  unwittingly  obscured  its  most 
vital  duty  by  the  suggestion  of  a  number  of  collateral 
issues  that  arc  in  effect  a  natural  and  logical  outgrowth 
of  the  proper  attention  to  its  primal  function.  The  rela- 
tion to  the  state  and  society,  to  the  higher  institutions  of 
learning,  to  the  pupil's  own  interests,  will  be  satisfac- 
torily established,  if  the  secondary  school  succeeds  "  by 
instruction  and  discipline  to  lay  the  foundations  for  that 
cultivation  and  inspiration  that  mark  the  truly  educated 
man."  ^  Let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  the  intellectual 
side  of  education  is  by  no  means  regarded  as  the  only 
desirable  end  ;  the  influence  of  education  on  conduct, 
individual  and  communal,  the  establishment  of  civic 
consciousness,  the  need  of  fortifying  moral  standards  in 
our  pupils,  are  in  like  manner  problems  of  the  second- 
ary schools,  but  we  are  just  now  concentrating  attention 

^  Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  Meaning  of  Education,  Macmillan,  1898, 
p.  160. 


PRESENT    STATUS   OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      97 

on  the  problem  of  advancing  the  intellectual  status  of 
the  schools. 

No  one  who  dispassionately  passes  in  review  our 
schools,  our  pupils,  and  our  teachers,  will  for  a  mo- 
ment believe  that  in  this  country  we  are  likely  to 
suffer  from  an  intellectual  proletariat,  the  presence  of 
which  has  disturbed  some  of  the  thinkers  of  Germany 
and  France.^  The  character  of  this  instruction  and  the 
methods  of  discipline  are  naturally  undergoing  modifica- 
tion in  each  succeeding  generation,  but  it  is  the  part  of 
unwisdom  to  introduce  changes  for  change's  sake. 
"  One  of  the  penalties  of  reform,"  says  David  Eugene 
Smith  {Sc/ioo/  Science  and  Mathematics ,  IX,  pp.  629-631), 
"  is  a  tendency  to  inefficiency  "  ;  hence  no  reform  should 
be  introduced  unless  we  can  present  with  it  sound, 
approved  methods  of  procedure.  A  favorite  plea  of  re- 
formers in  educational  matters  is  to  claim  for  each  in- 
novation that,  more  than  the  practice  that  it  is  intended 
to  supplant,  it  is  founded  upon  a  truly  philosophic  con- 
cept ;  is  there  not  too  frequent  reference  in  such  discus- 
sions to  "  the  philosophic  foundations  of  pedagogy  "  ? 
Do  not  candor  and  caution  rather  urge  us  to  an  appre- 
ciation of  Rudolf  Lehmann's  words  : ^     "In  our  present 

*  Lagardelle,  "  Les  Intellectuels  devant  le  Socialisme,"  in  Sadler, 
Unrest  in  Secondary  Education,  English  Special  Reports,  IX,  p.  30. 
London,  1902. 

2  Monatsc/iri/t fiir  h'ohere  Schulen,  IV,  p.  83. 
H 


98  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

State  of  knowledge  we  must  admit  that  scientific  investi- 
gation has  not  determined  these  philosophic  foundations  ; 
former  ages  believed  that  they  had  attained  to  this 
knowledge  "  ? 

A  comparison  with  the  prevailing  secondary  school 
systems  of  Germany  and  France  will  indicate  certain 
fundamental  differences,  and  may  lead  to  the  clearer 
recognition  of  our  peculiar  difficulties.  In  all  of  these 
countries  the  secondary  school  is  not  a  sequel  to  an 
eight-year  course  in  the  public  elementary  school,  as 
with  us;  France,  according  to  the  official  scheme  pre- 
pared by  the  Superior  Council  of  Public  Instruction  in 
1902,  builds  its  secondary  course  upon  a  four-years' 
course  of  primary  study ;  the  two  courses,  however,  are 
not  organically  articulated ;  they  are  not  strictly  speak- 
ing successive  phases  in  the  same  educational  procedure,^ 
and  the  French  secondary  school  is  paralleling  in  ele- 
mentary schools  of  its  own  those  of  the  actual  primary 
school.  In  these  classes  it  uses  the  same  subject 
matter  as  the  primary  school ;  there  are,  however,  slight 
differences  in  treatment  owing  largely  to  the  character 
and  preparation  of  the  teaching  corps.  Hence  the 
primary  work  in  these  preparatory  classes  of  the  sec- 
ondary school  is  distinctly  coordinated  with  the  regular 
secondary  studies ;  it  is  arranged  to  fit  directly  into  the 

1  Farrington,  French  Secondary  Schools,  pp.  86  and  126.  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  1910. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE    PUBLIC   HIGH    SCHOOL      99 

secondary  school,  and  may  be  said  to  be  of  the  secondary 
type. 

A  similar  paralleHsm  exists  in  Germany ;  for  the 
first  three  years  of  the  elementary  school  the  German 
secondary  school  has  its  Vorschule  (  preparatory  classes) 
covering  these  three  years.  But  the  German  school 
authorities  are  engaged  in  modifying  the  work  of  their 
elementary  schools,  so  that  the  first  three  years  of  the 
course  shall  be  a  satisfactory  substratum  for  the  sec- 
ondary schools.  It  is  their  avowed  purpose  to  do  away 
eventually  with  the  Vorschule  of  the  secondary  school;^ 
whether  they  will  succeed  or  not  remains  to  be  seen. 
They  may  prohibit  the  creation  of  new  Vorschulen,  but 
it  will  be  difficult  to  abolish  those  actually  in  existence. 

In  each  of  these  countries  a  much  longer  period  is 
deemed  necessary  to  accomplish  the  ends  of  secondary 
education  than  in  the  United  States.  Four  years  in 
France,  three  in  Germany,  seem  to  the  educational  ex- 
perts sufficient  forthe  fundamental  acquisition  of  the  tools 
of  information,  —  reading,  writing,  some  simple  arith- 
metic in  the  elementary  school,  or  its  equivalent.  Upon 
this  foundation  is  built  in  France  a  secondary  school 
system  covering  seven  years,  in  Germany  one  of  nine 
years;  the  authorities  of  both  countries  have  mapped 

*  Rein,  Tendencies  in  the  Educational  Systems  0/  Germany  (Special  Re- 
ports on  Educational  Subjects,  London,  1898,  vol.  3,  452-457.  Of.  Spe- 
cial Reports,  London,  1902,  vol.  9,  87). 


lOO  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

out  schemes  of  instruction  appropriate  to  the  attainment 
of  their  respective  aims.^  In  Germany  this  aim  finds 
official  expression  in  Lexis  Das  Unterrichtswesen  im 
Deutschen  Reich,  1904,  vol.  II,  40:  "It  is  the  function 
of  the  secondary  school  to  transmit  to  the  pupils  accord- 
ing to  the  stage  of  their  mental  advancement  the  general 
culture  of  the  nation  and  of  the  age  in  which  they  live"; 
it  assumes  that  in  so  doing  the  school  will  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  changing  currents  in  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  nation,  —  will  adjust  itself  to  new  social  needs. 

The  work  of  the  secondary  school  aims  then  to  give  a 
//(5^n?/ education ;  and  to  secure  the  intellectual  efficiency 
of  its  students,  it  arranges  that  the  teachers  intrusted 
with  this  mission  shall  have  ample  time  to  develop  the 
capacity  of  their  pupils  from  the  very  foundations  in  the 
cultural  subjects  which  they  themselves  lay,  to  a  very 
advanced  stage  of  attainment,  such  a  stage  as  nine  years 
(seven  in  France) of  consecutive  and  coordinated  teaching 
under  the  same  guidance  insure.  The  school  is  founded 
on  the  assumption  that  the  gradual  transition  from 
childhood  to  adolescence,  from  the  stage  of  mere  recep- 
tiveness  of  elementary  information  to  the  first  awaken- 
ings of  reflective  power,  the  indication  of  a  nascent 
mental  adolescence  is  made  more  efficient,  if  directed 

1  Couyba  in  Burstall,  English  High  Schools,  p.  218 :  "  La  haute  cul- 
ture qui  peut-fitre  un  luxe  pour  I'individu,  n'est  pas  un  luxe  pour  la 
nation." 


PRESENT   STATUS   OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      lOI 

by  those  who  will  continue  to  supervise  its  fuller  ex- 
pansion. 

Whatever  other  features  of  the  German  and  French 
school  systems  have  at  various  times  been  open  to  criti- 
cism, no  serious  exception  has  been  taken  to  the  age  of 
beginning  the  secondary  school  work.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  the  art  of  teaching  must  be  at  its  best  to 
make  the  foundation  work  both  ample  and  sound.^ 

The  quality  of  the  teaching  is  the  determining  factor 
in  the  secondary  school ;  it  is  this  that  makes  for  a  high 
level  of  average  attainment ;  the  excellence  of  the  teach- 
ing method  is  to  secure  effective  reaction  from  every 
member  of  the  class.  Subjects  and  combinations  of  sub- 
jects will  vary  with  the  varying  outlook  of  the  several 
types  of  secondary  school  which  are  sharply  differen- 
tiated and  fixed  in  their  educational  policy,  but  through- 
out, the  demands  of  quality  are  supreme  ;  that  is,  guar- 
anteed by  the  careful  system  of  training  of  the  teacher 
which  precedes  his  first  effort  in  the  management 
of  classes.  Quality  in  teaching  measures  the  character 
of  the  impulse,  establishes  the  intellectual  rebound.^ 

1  The  official  manual,  Lehrpl'diie  und  Lehratifgaben,  issued  by  the  Prus- 
sian Ministry'  of  Education  for  the  guidance  of  teachers,  reveals  every- 
where the  emphasis  that  attaches  to  the  early  stages  of  the  work.  Cf. 
Lehrplane  2tnd  Lehratifgaben  for  1901,  p.  21,  on  the  method  of  teaching 
the  vernacular. 

^Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  vol.  3,  88  (Sadler)  :  — 
"  Comparatively  recent  changes  in  the  conditions  of  life  have  tended 
to  make  the  more  precise  and  highly  differentiated  results  of  systematic 


I02  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

The  logical  consummation  of  this  preeminence  assigned 
to  quality  has  been  reached  in  Prussia  in  the  imperial 
decree  of  November  26,  1900,  which  recognizes  as 
"  equivalent  for  general  culture  the  intellectual  training 
afforded  by  the  three  types  of  secondary  schools,  the 
Gymnasium,  the  Realgymnasium,  and  the  Oberreal- 
schule,"  and  adds,  "by  the  fundamental  recognition  of 
this  equivalence  there  is  afforded  the  opportunity  to 
emphasize  more  completely  the  characteristics  of  each  of 
these  types.  It  is  in  substance  a  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  a  new  definition  of  the  cultured  man  is  in  order,"  ^ 
that  a  given  intellectual  standard  may  be  reached  along 
different  lines  of  approach,  that  the  quality  of  the  intel- 
lectual reaction  is  paramount  to  the  actual  information 
acquired.  Such  a  recognition  presupposes,  of  course, 
parity  in  the  quality  of  instruction  in  the  various  subjects ; 
the  enthusiastic  efforts  of  the  science  and  modern  lan- 
guage teachers  have  been  directed  for  several  decades 

school  and  academic  training  apparently  more  valuable,  and  certainly 
more  indispensable,  elements  in  national  welfare.  The  vigorous  but 
usually  imperfect  results  of  self-education  are  finding  themselves  over- 
matched by  the  competition  of  highly  specialized  aptitudes  skillfully 
combined  with  one  another,  subordinated  into  a  single  whole  and  ap- 
plied with  the  utmost  economy  in  the  expenditure  of  effort  and  material. 
It  is  really,  in  another  form,  the  struggle  between  robust  individualism 
and  the  collective  effort  of  a  disciplined  multiude." 

1  President  Eliot,  "  The  New  Definition  of  the  Cultured  Man."  Presi- 
dential address  before  the  N.  E.  A.,  1903,  reprinted  in  Science,  July  17, 
1903,  p.  77  ff. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      I03 

to  the  demonstration  of  this  equivalence  in  teaching 
methods.  A  similar  result  was  reached  in  the  reform 
program  of  the  French  Secondary  Schools,  based  upon  a 
comprehensive  parliamentary  inquiry  in  1899  ;i  the 
courses  in  mathematics,  in  science,  and  the  modern  lan- 
guages are  now  recognized  as  equivalent  in  culture  effi- 
ciency to  the  classical  course.  The  French  adhere 
wisely,  no  doubt,  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  ideals, 
to  the  humanistic  ideal,  and  give  a  humanistic  trend 
even  to  their  science  teaching.^ 

No  more  cardinal  distinction  exists  between  our  sys- 
tem of  gradation  and  that  of  the  European  schools, 
than  in  this  initial  point  of  difference.  Our  elementary 
school,  with  its  course  of  eight  years,  is  materially  pro- 
longed beyond  the  period  of  acquisition  of  the  rudiments  ; 
we  profess  to  embody  in  our  grammar  school  work  the 
foundations  of  general  liberal  knowledge,  some  history, 
some  geography,  some  elementary  science,  but  we  pre- 
sent them  to  our  pupils  largely  through  the  drill 
methods  of  the  elementary  school  in  which  we  persevere 
for  too  protracted  a  period.  Insistence  on  formal  repe- 
tition and  drill  with  the  specific  textbook  as  the  meas- 

1  Enquete  sur  I'enseignement  secondaire,  known  generally  as  M. 
Ribot's  commission.  Cf.  Compayre's  report,  Educatiofial  Review,  25, 
130-145. 

2Farrington,  Fretich  Secondary  Schools,  p.  124,  quotes  from  Couyba, 
Rapport  du  Budget  general,  1907,  p.  73  :  "  Scientific  humanism  has  won 
the  right  of  sitting  side  by  side  with  literary  humanism." 


I04  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

ure  of  accuracy  is  appropriate  to  the  very  first  years  of 
school  work ;  it  certainly  is  not  in  itself  an  incentive  to 
initiative ;  it  neither  encourages  nor  creates  the  capacity 
of  generalization,  of  individual  interpretation. 

We  ought,  in  fact,  to  have  two  entirely  different  types 
of  instruction  in  our  elementary  schools,  for  the  first  and 
the  second  four  years  ;  only  thus  might  the  advanced 
studies  of  the  grammar  school  lead  over  without  break 
of  continuity  into  the  specific  curricula  of  our  high 
schools.  We  adhere  too  long  to  one  and  the  same 
method,  whereas  the  transition  to  a  new  mode  of  study 
could  more  readily  be  carried  out  when  the  mental 
habits  of  the  child  are  still  flexible ;  the  ingrained 
habits  of  the  elementary  school,  maintained  into  the 
fourteenth  year  and  beyond,  are  with  difficulty  modified 
at  so  late  a  stage.  We  dwell  rather  too  insistently  on 
continuity,  on  our  success  in  preventing  school  courses 
and  school  systems  from  overlapping. 

But  there  are  two  kinds  of  continuity,  a  superficial  and 
a  spiritual  one ;  the  superficial  one  is  attained  all  too 
easily  by  a  mechanical  adjustment  in  which  the  second- 
ary school  follows  upon  the  completion  of  the  elemen- 
tary school;  what  I  should  call  spiritual  continuity 
involves  a  natural,  almost  unconscious  transition  from 
the  mental  experiences  of  the  upper  grammar  school 
grades  to  those  of  the  high  school,  undertaken  under  the 
guidance  of  the  same  type  of  mind  that  is  to  lead  this 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      I05 

new  faculty  to  a  fuller  development.  This  kind  of  con- 
tinuity, which  would  assure  real  economy  of  intellectual 
effort, we  have  not  secured  ;  there  exists  a  gap  which  no 
one  has  yet  succeeded  in  bridging.  With  an  abruptness 
and  a  rigor  that  is  often  disastrous  the  methods  of  the 
elementary  school  are  brushed  aside  as  worthless  for  the 
new  experiences,  and  the  secondary  school  is  the  sufferer, 
because  in  addition  to  a  copious  program  of  subject  mat- 
ter, it  is  compelled  to  undertake  the  creation  of  a  new 
uietJiod  of  study.  The  causes  of  this  painful  situation 
are  to  be  found  in  the  creation  of  the  public  high  school 
at  a  later  date,  when  the  elementary  school  had  already 
passed  through  a  prolonged  and  independent  develop- 
ment, and  had  attempted  to  appropriate  a  phase  of 
intellectual  insight  that  more  properly  belongs  to  the 
secondary  school  period. 

There  does  exist,  then,  an  overlapping  of  the  two 
phases  of  acquisition  that  is  not  beneficial  to  either. 
The  difficulties  encountered  at  the  beginning  of  the 
secondary  courses  are  frankly  recognized  as  factors 
vital  in  their  effect  on  the  success  of  the  secondary 
school  work  ;  the  pupils  are  expected  to  grapple  with 
the  content  of  the  liberal  subjects  by  a  method  totally 
different  from  that  pursued  in  the  elementary  school. 
Initiation  into  the  new  method  of  approach  requires 
patient  and  skillful  guidance,  for  which,  in  the  limited 
time   allotment   of   our   present   secondary    school    no 


I06  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

provision  is  made.  It  is  absurd  to  assume  that  the 
adolescent  pupil  is  as  ready  and  competent  to  transform 
his  method  of  study  as  to  don  a  new  suit  of  clothes. 

Two  modes  of  remedying  this  difficulty  have  been 
advocated :  one,  the  utilization  of  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  as  a  transitional  stage  toward  the  new 
experiences ;  the  other,  the  transference  of  the  more 
capable  students  of  these  two  grades  into  the  high 
school,  thus  making  the  high  school  course  one  of  six 
years  instead  of  the  traditional  four.  A  closer  consider- 
ation of  the  issues  involved  shows  that  these  two  meth- 
ods are  not  equivalent  alternatives  ;  the  former,  though 
it  has  appealed  to  many  because  of  its  advocacy  of  "  an 
enrichment  of  the  elementary  scheme,"  does  not  com- 
mend itself  as  the  proper  solution  for  a  variety  of  reasons. 
Our  elementary  teachers  do  not  as  a  result  of  their 
training  and  experience  possess  the  ability  to  introduce 
properly  the  high  school  subjects;  a  satisfactory  presen- 
tation of  these  subjects  in  their  beginnings  calls  for 
a  complete  grasp  of  them  along  the  whole  line  of 
secondary  school  development,  and  diluted  or  attenuated 
introductory  courses  that  have  been  attempted,  with  the 
aid  of  similarly  attenuated  textbook  guides,  are  distinctly 
detrimental.  We  should  therefore  need  for  such  seventh 
and  eighth  grades,  teachers  of  secondary  school  caliber 
who  were  ready  to  be  debarred  from  the  other  privileges 
of  secondary   school   work,  content   to   contribute   the 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      107 

foundation  work  without  opportunity  to  participate  in 
its  later  development. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  departmental  system  inaugurated 
for  this  purpose  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  elementary 
school,  or  in  intermediate  schools,  as  these  classes  have 
been  designated  in  some  large  cities,  breaks  with  the 
system  of  the  elementary  school,  and  yet  belongs  to 
it.  It  rarely  serves  the  purpose  of  introducing  the 
subject  matter  of  the  secondary  school ;  it  contents 
itself  with  the  introduction  of  high  school  study 
methods,  not  of  high  school  subject  matter.  To 
a  certain  degree  it  mitigates  our  present  difficulties, 
though  it  fails  in  that  it  does  not  test  the  powers  of  youth 
by  new  lines  of  thought,  and  it  does  not  contribute  to 
the  relief  of  the  congestion  in  the  high  school  program. 
Nor  is  it  in  fact  desirable  to  abandon  completely  the 
seventh  and  eighth  grades  of  our  elementary  schools. 
For  pupils  who  cannot  or  will  not  enter  upon  high 
school  work,  these  grades  may  become  specially  service- 
able, partly  through  the  traditional  reviews  which  even 
now  fill  so  large  a  part  of  their  scheme,  partly  through 
the  opportunity  afforded  to  relate  the  elementary  sub- 
jects to  vocational  needs.  In  this  arrangement  there 
is  neither  an  undue  advocacy  of  the  interests  of  the 
brighter  pupils  nor  a  slight  to  those  intellectually  infe- 
rior ;  the  latter  will  be  benefited  by  an  arrangement 
that  will  reheve  them  from   being  constantly  yoked  to 


I08  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

those  of  intenser  mettle  ;  the  sympathetic  teacher  who 
adapts  his  pace  to  their  capacity  for  progress  will  often 
find  them  finally  successful  in  their  allotted  work.^  As 
far  back  as  1 87 1  and  1 873,  in  the  St.  Louis  School  Reports, 
Dr.  William  T.  Harris  criticized  in  much  of  the  prevail- 
ing theory  of  school  management "  a  wholesale  slaughter 
of  the  time  and  opportunity  of  well-disposed  youth  "  ;  ^ 
and  the  criticism  does  not  appear  obsolete  to-day. 

At  the  close  of  the  sixth  grade  the  capable,  ambitious 
American  child  is  certainly  as  ready  to  take  up  some  of 
the  secondary  subjects  as  European  children  do  one  or 
two  years  earlier,  and  it  is  distinctly  not  antagonistic  to 
the  democratic  ideal  to  open  the  avenue  into  new  lines 
of  endeavor  to  those  prepared  to  utilize  them.  A  six- 
year  high  school  course,  linked  to  a  six-year  elementary 
course,  is  inevitable.  The  readjustment  will,  and  should, 
involve  a  marked  increase  in  public  expenditure  ;  the 
apparent  increase  in  burden  of  ta.xation  will  be  more 
than  offset  by  growth  in  school  efficiency.  Our  present 
four-year  high  school,  with  its  elaborate  equipment  for  a 
rapidly  diminishing  body  of  students,  is  more  extravagant 
than  the  average  taxpayer  realizes.     Furthermore,  a  six- 

^  H.  Thiselton  Mark,  Individuality  in  American  Education,  1901, 
Longmans,  p.  35  ff. 

*  For  an  interesting  contribution  to  the  study  of  the  interests  of  the 
bright  pupils  cf.  Petzoldt,  Sonderschulen  fUr  hervorragend  Befdhigte, 
Teubner,  1905  ;  unfeasible  in  practice,  it  is  extremely  suggestive  in  point- 
ing out  the  moral  danger  to  the  inadequately  occupied  bright  pupil. 


PRESENT   STATUS   OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      ibg 

year  high  school  course  admits  of  partition  into  an  up- 
per and  lower  high  school  (a  junior  or  a  senior  high 
school)  of  three  years  each,  so  that  commonwealths  un- 
willing or  unable  to  provide  for  the  lengthened  course 
may  restrict  themselves  to  provision  for  the  lower  high 
school.  Incidentally  this  change  would  prove  a  means 
of  decreasing  the  excessive  number  of  inadequate  high 
schools  which  try  to  carry  a  four  years'  schedule  on  in- 
sufficient financial  support,  with  flagrant  shortage  in  the 
numbers,  salaries,  and  capacities  of  teachers.^ 

The  contrast  between  the  professions  of  performance, 
made  for  and  by  the  great  majority  of  the  high  schools, 
and  their  actual  performance,  may  be  gathered  from  the 
number  of  students  they  contribute  to  the  entering 
college  classes.  The  question  of  correlation  between 
the  high  school  and  the  colleges  is  not  involved  at  this 
point ;  the  majority  of  high  schools  boldly  assert  their 
ability  to  equip  their  students  for  college  entrance,  but 
fail  lamentably,  owing  to  weak  teaching. 

The  principle  of  concentration,  which  has  been  so 
effective  in  the  elementary  school  system  of  the  country, 
and  has  substituted  strong  central  schools  for  weak  dis- 
trict schools  in  rural  communities,  might  well  be  extended 
to  the  high  schools ;  a  well  organized  two-  or  three-year 
high  school  is  always  preferable  to  a  pretence  of  a  four- 

1  Thorndike,  E.  L.,  "  A  Neglected  Aspect  of  the  American  High 
School,"  Educational  Review,  March,  1907,  245-256. 


no  THE   AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

year  high  school.  It  were  often  wise  to  temper  vague 
ambitions,  to  rest  content  with  what  we  are  capable  of 
doing ;  legislation  bearing  on  the  creation  of  school 
organizations  is  often  construed  as  mandatory  where  it 
is  intended  to  be  merely  permissive. 

The  object  of  the  extended  six-year  high  school  course 
is  to  do  effectively  what  has  hitherto  been  accomplished 
inadequately  and  at  a  ruthless  sacrifice  of  fair  material. 
Two  elements  should  dominate  such  a  reorganization ; 
the  initiation  into  the  new  style  of  study  should  be  made 
gradually,  and  the  whole  process  of  instruction  should 
be  at  once  thorough  and  rational ;  for  both  requirements 
ample  time  is  required.  It  cannot  therefore  be  too 
emphatically  urged  that  the  purpose  of  the  six-year  high 
school  is  not  to  carry  the  instruction  in  subject  matter  at 
any  point  farther  than  the  goal  of  the  present  high 
school,  but  to  realize  completely  and  satisfactorily  what 
we  have  hitherto  failed  to  accomplish.  The  new  scheme 
should  be  a  powerful  incentive  to  the  development  of 
standards  of  thoroughness,  of  which  we  stand  in  sore 
need ;  we  might  then  insist  on  our  pupils'  real  mastery 
of  given  subjects,  rather  than  accept  mere  approximation 
to  mastery.  The  student  body  in  our  colleges  and  pro- 
fessional schools  would  soon  disclose  an  increased  de- 
gree of  efficiency,  and  one  of  the  most  marked  criticisms 
of  our  educational  scheme  ought  to  disappear. 

To  our  teachers,  the  good  as  well  as  the  mediocre,  the 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      III 

increase  in  available  time  should  prove  a  great  gain ;  there 
could  be  offered  every  inducement  to  develop  the  teach- 
ing faculty  in  the  teacher,  the  power  of  thinking  and  rea- 
soning in  the  pupil.  It  should,  in  fact,  lead  to  a  complete 
remodeling  of  the  method  of  teaching.  It  need  hardly 
be  said  that  the  purpose  of  such  an  expansion  would  be 
defeated,  if  it  led  to  a  sluggishness  of  pace  in  our  sec- 
ondary school  work,  not  too  rare  under  our  present  day 
conditions,  or  to  a  decHne  in  the  intensity  of  application 
of  the  student  body.  On  the  contrary,  the  change  is 
advocated  in  the  interest  of  intellectual  vigor ;  the  ad- 
ditional time  is  not  more  than  adequate  to  substitute 
precision,  definiteness  of  attainment  for  hazy  concepts 
that  are  prone  to  flourish  under  the  influence  of  con- 
gested programs,  and  it  is  this  that  the  advocates  of  the 
expanded  course  demand. 

"  A  vigorous  system,"  says  Harris  (St.  Louis  School 
Reports,  1873,  p.  135),  "transmutes  the  pulpy  sub- 
stance of  impulse  and  incHnation  —  the  undisciplined 
will — into  a  self-controlled  will,  a  directive  intelligence, 
that  can  reenforce  the  moments  by  the  hours,  and 
accomplish  something  in  the  world.  Most  persons 
that  I  have  known  brought  up  under  the  laissez  faire 
system  have  seemed  to  lapse  away  in  after  life  and 
recede  from  the  promise  that  their  school  life  gave, 
while  the  strong  characters  have  emanated  from  the 
throng  of  those  who  were    held  to  a  strict  responsi- 


112  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

bility  in  their  school  life."  Compare  with  this  the  state- 
ment of  President  Pritchett  (5th  Annual  Report  Car- 
negie Foundation,  1910,  p.  64) :  "  The  real  struggle  in  the 
American  higher  school  is  between  that  influence  which 
makes  toward  thoroughness  and  that  which  makes  to- 
ward superficiality  ;  and  if  the  high  school  is  to  become 
the  true  training  place  of  the  people,  the  ideal  of  thor- 
oughness must  supplant  the  ideal  of  superficiality ." 

Fatal  of  course  to  the  introduction  of  the  six-year 
high  school  scheme  would  be  the  assumption  that  with 
this  increase  in  the  number  of  high  school  years  the 
high  school  could  blithely  undertake  the  functions  of 
the  first  two  college  years ;  we  cannot  protest  too  ener- 
getically against  such  an  endeavor,  for  it  would  again 
stimulate  the  substitution  of  superficiality  for  thorough- 
ness. If  once  it  could  be  established  that  the  work  of 
the  high  school  stage  were  being  done  too  well,  then 
there  might  be  a  pretext  for  this  fatuous  clamor.^ 

A  detailed  program  for  such  an  expanded  six-year 
high  school  course  it  should  not  be  difficult  to  elaborate ; 
the  scheme  would  in  the  main  involve  the  expansion  of 
each  two  years  of  the  high  school  course  into  a  three 
years'  course  in  the  interest  of  thoroughness  and  sys- 

1  Sachs,  J.,  "  The  Elimination  of  the  First  Two  College  Years :  A  Pro- 
test," Educational  Review,  Dec.  1905,  48  ff.  Salmon,  L.  M.,  "  The  En- 
croachment of  the  Secondary  Schools  on  the  College  Curriculum," 
Proceedings  of  20th  Annual  Convention  of  Association  of  Colleges 
and  preparatory  schools  of  Middle  States  and  Mar>'land,  1906,  56-63. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      II3 

tematic  progress ;  within  the  range  of  work  hitherto 
undertaken  it  would  allow  for  a  normal  attainment  of 
fundamental  knowledge  in  each  new  subject,  for  pre- 
cision and  accuracy  of  basic  information;  this  would 
enable  the  pupils  in  the  higher  stages  to  experience, 
because  of  the  definite  power  acquired,  some  intellec- 
tual pleasure  in  the  advanced  studies,  which  the  pres- 
ent unremitting  stress  of  the  congested  program  can 
hardly  promote. 

A  tentative  six-year  program  from  this  point  of  view 
was  formulated  in  the  report  of  a  committee,  known  as 
the  Pettee  Committee,  in  1902  ;  ^  the  sponsors  of  this  pro- 
gram claimed  no  more  for  it  than  that  it  was  a  crude 
blocking  out  of  the  current  studies  along  new  lines  of 
distribution ;  from  many  of  its  details  one  might  justly 
dissent,  but  it  was  of  great  significance,  for  it  incorpo- 
rated certain  vital  assumptions  that  American  teachers 
would  do  well  to  weigh.  It  was  especially  suggestive 
in  the  proposed  rearrangement  of  the  mathematical 
work,  and  this  part  of  the  plan  has  been  carried  out 
successfully,  even  where  the  six-year  scheme  as  a  whole 
was  not  possible.  From  a  careful  study  of  this  plan  in 
conjunction  with  the  programs  of  typical  German 
and  French  secondary  schools  (the  last  two  years  of 
which  would  have  to  be  omitted,  as  they  parallel  our 

1  Reprinted  in  article  of  Professor  Hanus,  Educational  Review,  May, 
1903,  457-461. 


114  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

first  two  college  years)  several  workable  six-year  pro- 
grams could  be  established. 

The  ideal  of  a  six-year  high  school  course  is  not 
within  proximate  realization  throughout  the  country ; 
a  protracted  campaign  of  education  will  be  necessary  to 
establish  its  value,  a  campaign  that  must  first  secure  the 
cooperation  and  energetic  advocacy  of  school  superin- 
tendents and  principals  before  it  will  gain  recognition  by 
school  boards  and  tax-paying  citizens. 

Meanwhile  our  four-year  high  school  courses  of  varied 
types  and  aims  are  with  us ;  an  analysis  of  their  conditions 
ought  to  show  wherein  their  strength  and  their  weakness 
lies,  and  prompt  to  suggestions  for  their  improvement. 
The  vagueness  of  aspiration,  the  indefiniteness  of  pur- 
pose, which  has  marked  the  work  in  our  high  schools  in 
the  past  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  definiteness  of  aim 
in  the  various  types  of  the  German  and  French  secondary 
schools.  This  was  drastically  revealed  in  the  preliminary 
investigations  of  the  Committee  of  Ten;  they  reported 
the  presence  of  nearly  forty  subjects  in  the  courses  of 
different  high  schools,^  many  of  them  useless  because  of 
the  brevity  of  time  allotted  to  them,  others  inappropriate 
to  the  age  and  the  stage  of  development  of  the  pupils. 

A  number  of  these  subjects  have  been  generally 
eliminated,  and  the  present-day  curricula  show  a  great 
diminution  in  variety  of  secondary  subjects;   neverthe- 

1  Report  Committee  of  Ten,  p.  5. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      II5 

less,  the  schools  have  not  yet  completely  overcome 
the  tendency  to  introduce  an  apparent  enrichment 
of  their  courses  at  the  cost  of  thoroughness.  Many 
a  course  is  offered  that  falls  below  the  minimum  of 
what  the  Committee  of  Ten  designated  as  a  sub- 
stantial course,  occupying  for  one  school  year  an 
average  of  four  recitations  per  week,  and  the  options 
suggested  are  often  attractive  in  semblance  rather  than 
genuinely  valuable.  But  there  has  grown,  within  the 
last  fifteen  years,  in  communities  that  accept  the  guid- 
ance of  thoughtful  educational  leaders,  the  conviction 
that  there  must  be  agreement  as  to  lines  of  study 
essential  as  a  nucleus  of  secondary   school   work. 

It  is  now  well  understood  that  there  are  six  lines  of 
study,  no  one  of  which  can  be  ignored  (Butler,  Hanus, 
Harris),  English,  one  foreign  language,  history,  mathe- 
matics, science,  manual  arts.  The  language  and  history 
group  should  be  in  the  foreground  of  our  interests ;  it 
should  be  the  definite  backbone  of  the  secondary  course, 
the  fundamental  attainment  of  the  adolescent.  In  favor 
of  the  studies  of  this  group  we  will  do  well  to  accept 
the  opinion  of  Paulsen,  the  historian  of  the  German 
higher  school  system,  that  the  past  records  of  the  life 
of  mankind  are  better  calculated  to  influence  the  souls 
of  the  young  than  the  inflexible  laws  of  nature.-^     The 

1  In  an   interesting   recent   document  {Aufgabe  und   Gestaltung  der 
hbhertn    Schulen,    Drei    Vbrtrdge,  Munich,  1910)    prominent   represen- 


H6  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

information  a  pupil  acquires  he  must  be  able  to  utilize 
in  his  relations  to  his  fellow-beings,  therefore  he  must 
express  in  appropriate  words  what  he  has  acquired, 

I.  Power  in  expression  comes  through  language  study, 
the  power  to  appreciate  what  has  been  said  and  done 
by  our  predecessors ;  to  express  simply  and  directly 
in  our  vernacular  what  we  know  and  what  we  think,  is 
a  preliminary  to  effectiveness  in  other  branches ;  even 
the  exceptional  grasp  of  the  thinking  process  involved 
in  mathematics,  and  in  the  observational  field  of  scien- 
tific inquiry,  is  impaired  by  the  absence  of  the  power 
of  expression.^  It  has  become  a  recognized  common- 
place that  it  is  unsafe,  unwise  to  expect  this  power  to 
develop  intuitively ;  it  requires  systematic  cultivation. 
Even  those  nations  that  have  a  fairly  homogeneous 
population,  like  France  and  Germany,  have  concen- 
trated their  attention  upon  the  acquisition  of  flexibility 

tatives  of  technical,  scientific,  and  linguistic  education  agree  that  in 
the  future  development  of  the  secondary  schools  the  historico-linguis- 
tic  branches  must  receive  their  merited  recognition  {'ihr  gutes  Recht 
behaupten  '). 

^The  series  of  symposia  at  the  University  of  Michigan  in  which 
leaders  of  science,  law,  medicine,  the  engineering  branches  and  public 
affairs  bear  testimony  to  the  specific  value  of  the  classics  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  studies  is  a  significant  index  of  the  opinions  of 
thoughtful  men ;  the  papers  form  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  sub- 
ject in  the  face  of  much  irrelevant  criticism ;  cf.  Kelsey,  Latin  and 
Greek  in  American  Education  with  Symposia  on  the  value  of  humanistic 
studies,  Macmillan,  1911,  83-396. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      II7 

in  the  employment  of  the  vernacular ;  in  France  a  well 
established  teaching  tradition  has  produced  through 
the  schools,  elementary  and  secondary,  a  mastery  of 
the  common  speech  and  that  felicitous  use  of  it  which 
we  designate  as  literary  style,  and  the  cultivation  of 
this  faculty,  modestly  begun,  but  persistently  enlarged, 
is  promoted  by  a  series  of  educational  devices  (sug- 
gested in  the  official  Plan  d'etudes)  that  are  unique  in 
their  completeness  and  effectiveness ;  ^  Germany,  which 
like  England  and  America,  formerly  leaned  toward 
a  laissea-aller  policy  in  the  matter  of  instruction  in 
the  vernacular,  on  the  assumption  that  it  was  an  un- 
conscious acquisition  which  called  for  no  systematic 
guidance,  has  completely  reversed  its  policy  within 
the  last  twenty  years,  and  makes  it  the  core  of  its  en- 
tire educational  scheme. 

"  The  instruction  in  German  is,  like  the  instruction 
in  history  and  rehgion,  educationally  the  most  impor- 
tant, and  the  task  assigned  to  it  most  difficult ; "  the 
aim  is  thus  expressed  "to  develop  gradually  in  the 
pupil  the  power  of  reproducing  in  a  simple  and 
suitable  fashion  in  free  oral  utterance  sound  knowl- 
edge, and    clear  views.      All  teachers   must  take  full 

1 "  French  secondary  education  cultivates  and  transmits  a  great  tra- 
dition of  literary  style."  Sadler,  Unrest  in  Secondary  Education,  Eng- 
lish Special  Reports,  IX,  115 ;  cf.  Hartog,  Teaching  of  the  Mother 
Tongue  in  France,  Educational  Review,  April,  1908,  335. 


Il8  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

advantage  of  every  means  that  may  stimulate  the 
power  of  expression  in  speech  and  writing."  ^  It  is 
the  present  tendency  of  the  school  to  remove  the 
reproach  of  cumbersome  and  involved  utterance  that 
formerly  attached  to  German  Hterary  expression ;  all 
recent  observers  agree  in  recognizing  the  intelligence 
and  persistency  of  these  efforts  for  clearness  of  state- 
ment. Lucidity  in  the  use  of  the  vernacular  is  empha- 
sized as  one  of  the  by-products  of  instruction  in  the 
classics ;  Dettweiler  {Latemischer  Unterricht,  2d  ed.,  Mu- 
nich, 1906,  55)  says,  "Correct  translation  requires,  in 
addition  to  the  most  thorough  understanding  of  the 
Latin,  an  almost  boundless  insight  into  the  divergent 
character  of  the  two  languages,  and  a  far-reaching  grasp 
of  the  modern  tongue." 

To  advance  the  faculty  of  expression  should  be  the 
aim  of  our  English  courses ;  a  rationally  directed  study 
of  literary  expression,  both  of  its  best  present  usage  and 
of  its  eminent  models  in  prose  and  poetry,  reveals  to 
the  student  how  thought  is  made  intelligible  in  form, 
and  should  lead  him  to  develop  (not  by  imitation 
merely  )  a  natural  and  effective  vehicle  for  his  thoughts, 

1  Among  the  innumerable  contributions  to  the  method  of  teaching 
the  German  vernacular  the  most  valuable  are  :  A.  Matthias,  Praktiscke 
Fddagogik,  3d  ed.,  Munich,  1908,  35,  41.  Lehmann,  Der  deutsche  Un- 
terricht. R.  Hildebrand,  Vom  detitschen  Sprachufiterricht  in  der  Schule, 
4th  ed.,  1890.  Reform  des  hdheren  Schulwesens,  Halle,  1902,  pp.  177- 
190  (Rudolf  Lehmann). 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      II9 

for  in  his  native  speech  he  employs  a  medium  that 
affords  him  relatively  the  slightest  obstacles. 

Interpretation  of  literary  masterpieces,  formal  analy- 
sis, grasp  of  rhetorical  devices,  all  these  are  constituent 
parts  of  the  English  teacher's  work,  but  they  are  only 
parts ;  he,  above  all  others,  should  be  both  the  thought- 
master  and  the  expression  master  of  the  school, —  the 
one  to  direct  and  guide  the  nexus  between  the  thought 
and  its  formulation  in  definite  expression.  The  mere 
literary  specialist  is  out  of  place  here ;  it  is  the  best- 
informed  teacher  we  should  have  for  the  teacher  of  Eng- 
lish,—  the  person  of  broadest  intellectual  sympathies, 
interested  in  as  many  as  possible  of  the  student's  studies, 
appreciative  of  all  intellectual  effort  of  the  student,  and 
focussing  it  toward  expression.  Each  nation  must  re- 
gard its  vernacular  as  the  universal  tool  of  intercourse ; 
it  is  the  clear,  unaffected  use  of  our  native  speech,  orally 
or  in  writing,  that  best  conveys  our  thoughts  to  our 
fellow-men  of  the  same  tongue. 

Our  secondary  school  masters  have  not,  as  a  rule, 
realized  the  full  significance  of  oral  expression,  and  our 
school  exercises  reflect  seriously  the  consequences. 
There  is  abounding  evidence  of  the  oral  helplessness  of 
our  pupils  ;  we  all  know  the  halting  utterance,  the  dis- 
connected and  fragmentary  ejaculation  that  is  usually 
the  apology  for  a  clear  statement,  the  reluctance  to 
enunciate  in  distinct  and  natural  flow  of  speech  the  con- 


120  THE    AAEERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

tent  of  thought.  It  has  been  customary  to  excuse  and 
explain  this  lamentable  defect  by  referring  to  adolescent 
shyness  and  reticence.  But  whilst  this  characteristic  of 
adolescent  youth  may  be  freely  acknowledged,  it  does 
not  palliate  the  extreme  remissness  of  the  school  in  ac- 
cepting it  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  school  must  con- 
centrate its  powers,  its  skill,  on  combating  this  tendency 
by  daily,  hourly  efforts,  by  unremitting  endeavor.  Our 
growing  youth  are  not  more  self-conscious  than  those 
of  other  nations,  and  if  elsewhere  insistence  on  con- 
nected, intelligible  statements  triumphs  over  these  same 
difficulties  and  secures  distinctness  in  continuous  utter- 
ance, we  can  accomplish  the  same  results.  It  is  a  gen- 
erally recognized  blemish  in  much  high  school  work 
that  the  same  teacher  who  accepts  fragmentary,  often 
meaningless,  answers,  and  pieces  them  out  with  his  own 
statements,  does  the  major  part  of  the  talking  in  the 
class,  a  more  convenient,  but  educationally  not  a  valu- 
able, procedure. 

11.  The  study  of  at  least  one  foreign  language, 
whether  ancient  or  modern,  should  be  pursued  by  every 
high  school  student.  High  schools  and  high  school 
courses  that  exclude  altogether  the  study  of  a  foreign 
language  deliberately  sacrifice  an  important  educational 
agency  without  gaining  an  equivalent  in  increased  abil- 
ity in  the  vernacular ;  their  English  curricula  are  usually 
identical  with  those  pursued  by  the  students  who  master 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      121 

one  or  more  foreign  tongues.  If  the  sacrifice  is  sup- 
posed to  insure  the  opportunity  for  greater  efficiency  in 
other  subjects,  it  is  unnecessary;  a  curriculum,  planned 
on  sensible  lines,  will  meet  all  needs.  The  consensus 
of  educational  thinkers  is  agreed  on  the  value  of  foreign 
language  study  as  "indispensable  keys  to  culture."  Not 
that  the  foreign  language  is  essetitial  to  the  proper 
grasp  of  the  vernacular,  but  because  unquestionably  the 
analogies,  both  of  similarity  and  contrast,  which  com- 
parison suggests,  bring  into  distinct  prominence  the 
characteristics  of  the  vernacular ;  they  serve  to  confirm 
and  control  usage.  Besides,  when  properly  taught,  the 
study  of  a  foreign  tongue  is  a  stimulus  and  corrective 
to  intellectual  sympathies;  through  the  literary  docu- 
ments, and  above  all  else  through  the  revelation  of  the 
foreign  community's  interests  and  aspirations,  it  widens 
the  outlook  that  the  study  of  native  speech  is  likely  to 
furnish.  The  choice  between  Latin  and  Greek  on  the 
one  hand,  or  French  or  German,  must  depend  upon 
whether  we  prefer  to  hark  back  to  the  origins,  out  of 
which  modern  peoples  and  literatures  have  grown,  or 
whether  we  are  more  attracted  to  a  study  of  the  diver- 
sity in  contemporary  communities  that  thrives  under 
fairly  parallel  conditions  of  growth.  A  direct  outcome 
of  this  point  of  view  is,  then,  that  in  the  study  of  a  modern 
language  the  knowledge  of  the  present-day  spoken 
language  and  of  the  social  and  intellectual  conditions 


122  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

prevailing  among  the  people  who  employ  it  should  pre- 
cede the  study  of  its  literary  development. 

III.  The  power  to  understand  and  interpret  present- 
day  problems  and  issues  is  aided  by  knowledge  of  the 
course  and  relation  of  events  in  the  past,  in  our  own  and 
other  countries.  Intelligent  appreciation  of  poHtical  and 
social  questions  is  conditioned  upon  the  conception  of 
what  the  past  history  of  the  race  reveals ;  the  under- 
standing of  man  to-day  depends  upon  understanding  him 
in  the  past.  A  continuous  study  of  history  throughout 
the  years  of  the  secondary  school  is  in  importance  sec- 
ond only  to  power  of  expression  in  the  vernacular,  and 
it  should  be  presented  so  that  the  progress  of  human 
endeavor  is  revealed  in  the  various  stages  of  the  study,  in 
the  tendencies  and  the  dominating  principles  of  succes- 
sive periods.  A  combination  of  cultural  and  social  with 
political  history  is  necessary  if  we  are  to  understand  and 
advance  our  own  institutions.  Of  such  a  conception  of 
historical  teaching  the  acquaintance  with  the  great  liter- 
ary development  in  the  various  nations  is  an  integral  part. 

IV.  In  contrast  to  these  three  groups  of  humanistic 
subjects,  the  mathematical  course  of  the  secondary 
school  calls  for  a  new  type  of  intellectual  insight,  the 
ability  to  apply  elementary  deductive  reasoning ;  it  is, 
par  excellence,  a   training  in  logic.^     It   introduces   the 

1  David  E.  Smith,  Teaching  of  Elementary  Mathematics,  Macmillan, 
1902,  p.  167. 


PRESENT   STATUS   OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 23 

pupil  through  algebra  to  a  generalization  of  number  re- 
lations, and  through  geometry  to  an  initial  conception  of 
space  relations  and  to  the  demonstration  of  these  relations 
by  abstract  proof  ;  its  value  to  the  student  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  methods  of  the  syllogism  are  developed 
by  and  for  the  student  through  concrete  space  relations. 
Logical  thinking  could  of  course  be  established  along  the 
line  of  other  subjects  of  the  course,  but  in  no  other  way 
as  directly  and  as  obviously  as  through  the  successive 
stages  of  geometrical  doctrine.  It  is  of  first  importance 
that  in  the  teaching  of  geometry  the  physical  conception 
of  the  space  relations  and  the  logical  processes  of  demon- 
strating their  inevitable  truth  shall  constantly  and  dis- 
tinctly be  differentiated  ;  the  training  in  logical  reasoning 
is  the  particular  educational  contribution  of  mathematics  to 
the  experiences  of  the  high  school  pupil.  To  the  order 
in  which  the  mathematical  topics  should  be  introduced, 
reference  may  be  made  hereafter  ;  the  question  of  pre- 
senting the  concrete  side  of  geometry,  which  includes 
mensuration,  superposition,  etc.,  at  a  considerably  earlier 
stage  than  the  purely  demonstrational,  logical  geometry, 
is  attracting  the  serious  attention  of  progressive  teachers.. 
V.  An  attempt  to  understand  some  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  physical  universe  that  surround  him  should  be  un- 
dertaken by  every  high  school  pupil ;  and  the  observa- 
tional faculties  that  are  involved  in  recognizing  and 
combining  the  manifestations  of  the  organic  or  inorganic 


124  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

world  around  him  lead  through  the  application  of  the 
inductive  process  to  the  establishment  of  the  general 
truths  which  we  call  scientific.  The  instruction  should 
be  both  observational  and  informational,  combining 
laboratory  work,  the  teacher's  lecture,  as  well  as  the 
textbook,  with  frequent  summaries  or  quizzes.  It  is  of 
far  less  consequence  that  the  high  school  pupil  should 
be  initiated  into  the  fundamental  facts  of  a  number  of 
sciences  than  that  in  any  one  he  shall  gain  acquaintance 
with  the  results  that  observation  and  comparison  of  indi- 
vidual observation  furnish  ;  it  is  the  method  of  approach 
in  the  study  of  science  that  is  of  real  significance,  and 
therefore  the  attempt  to  cover  a  number  of  science-sub- 
jects in  the  successive  high  school  years  is  less  likely  to 
bring  about  a  scientific  attitude  than  the  prolonged 
and  detailed  study  of  one  or  two  related  sciences.^ 

1  Dr.  Georg  Kerschensteiner  of  Munich,  whose  thoroughly  modern 
point  of  view  on  questions  of  educational  procedure  has  become  fa- 
miliar to  all  interested  in  vocational  training  and  the  continuation-school, 
offers  a  striking  statement  on  this  point  in  Aufgabe  und  Gestaltung  der 
hoheren  Schulen,  cited  above. 

On  page  52  he  says  :  "  Frankly  speaking,  the  newer  types  of  schools 
will  never  equal  in  effectiveness  the  older  type,  the  classical  gymnasium, 
unless  they  are  ready  to  forego  quantitatively  half  of  the  mass  of  infor- 
mation they  undertake  to  convey  ;  quantity  is  to  be  replaced  by  depth  of 
insight,  by  training  of  the  observational  faculties,  and  of  practical  scien- 
tific ability  ;  the  value  of  science-teaching  in  the  schools  Hes  in  the 
method  of  work,  in  the  correct  formulation  of  inquiry,  in  the  securing  of 
correct  answers  with  the  aid  of  experimentation." 

In  Germany,  as  with  us,  there  lurks  the  danger  in  the  science-teach- 
ing of  the  secondary  schools  to  convey  multa,  rather  than  multum. 


PRESENT   STATUS   OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 25 

VI.  And  finally,  some  phase  of  instruction  in  the 
manual  arts  should  be  offered  to  every  high  school 
student.  The  cultivation  of  manual  skill  may  be  se- 
cured through  drawing,  or  modeling,  through  designing 
or  what  is  known  as  the  more  specific  manual  training, 
the  development  of  skill  in  the  crafts,  in  manipulating 
tools  and  in  producing  typical  objects  from  woods,  met- 
als, or  fibers.  This  larger  conception  of  experience  in 
the  manual  arts  seems  likely  to  replace  the  demand  for 
the  activities  of  the  workshop,  which  does  not  make  its 
appeal  to  all  students. 

We  have  thus  cursorily  considered  the  subjects  we 
deem  the  essentials  of  the  secondary  course  ;  with  these  as 
the  substantial  core  of  the  work  there  seems  little  need 
of  modification  to  meet  local  conditions.  At  all  events  it 
seems  undesirable  to  reduce  the  emphasis  upon  the 
language-history  group ;  their  contribution  to  the  mental 
efficiency  of  the  adolescent  pupil  is  so  important  that  we 
must  protest  against  a  lessening  of  the  time-allotment 
accorded  to  them.  The  secondary  school  stage  is,  above 
all  others,  the  period  for  the  acquisition  of  the  power  of 
expression,  and  it  cannot  be  deferred.  It  is  a  funda- 
mental point  on  which  the  secondary  school  must  take 
its  stand  ;  the  preponderance  of  linguistic  training  to- 
gether with  history  which  prevails  in  all  types  of  second- 
ary schools  abroad  is  not,  as  some  iconoclasts  claim,  a 
relic  of  past  traditions  ;  the  leaders  of  thought  in  science 


126  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

and  mathematics  are  in  agreement  on  the  supreme  value 
of  this  attainment  in  professional  and  practical  life. 

Assuming  always  the  presentation  of  the  several  sub- 
jects by  efficient  and  conscientious  teachers,  the  essen- 
tials, as  just  outlined,  can  be  covered  satisfactorily  in  the 
following  allotment  of  time  :  — 

English  :  four  recitations  per  week  throughout  course. 
History  :  three  recitations  per  week  throughout  course. 
Foreign  language :  five  recitations  per  week  throughout  course. 

If  the  choice  falls  upon  modern  languages,  the  first  language  might 
be  reduced  in  3d  and  4th  year  to  two  periods  per  week  to  allow 
three  periods  per  week  for  a  second  language. 

Science  :  four  recitations  per  week  throughout  course. 
Mathematics  :  four  recitations  per  week  throughout  course. 
Manual  arts :  four  recitations  per  week  throughout  course. 

As  the  work  in  manual  arts  requires  no  home  prep- 
aration, this  scheme  involves  twenty  periods  of  prepared 
work. 

Two  features  of  this  scheme  call  for  detailed  exposi- 
tion. 

{a)  The  departure  from  the  current  doctrine  of  five 
weekly  recitations  per  week  in  each  subject,  and  (d)  the 
question  of  the  total  number  of  recitations  per  week. 

(a)  Until  1892,  and  even  to  the  present  day,  the  pre- 
vailing distribution  of  studies  in  many  high  schools  was 
such  that  four  subjects,  to  each  of  which  five  periods 
per  week  were  assigned,  constituted  the  weekly  program. 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 27 

The  investigations  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  disclosed 
the  fact  that  such  mechanical  assignment  made  it  im- 
possible to  incorporate  the  desirable  and  necessary  sub- 
jects (usually  five  in  number)  in  high  school  courses  :  it 
involved  an  illogical  and  disjointed  arrangement  of  sub- 
ject matter  in  successive  years.  In  many  programs 
history  was  offered  in  two  years,  often  separated  by  one 
or  two  years'  interval,  science  likewise  in  two  years, 
frequently  in  the  first  and  fourth  years,  mathematics 
rarely  covered  more  than  three  years  ;  foreign  languages 
were  either  entirely  ignored  or  carried  through  only  two 
or  three  years ;  English  was  the  only  subject  accorded 
a  full  four  years'  course. 

It  was  claimed  that  five  recitations  per  week  in  a  sub- 
ject were  necessary  to  create  an  intensive  interest  in  it. 
As  in  many  other  features  of  our  system  an  arrange- 
ment was  proclaimed  a  logical  necessity  which  had 
in  its  favor  the  merit  of  a  certain  convenience.  It 
simplified  unquestionably  the  problem  of  program  con- 
struction and  of  distribution  of  teaching  forces ;  a  more 
elaborate  program  requires  greater  skill  on  the  part  of 
the  principal,  greater  flexibihty  in  the  teaching  force. 

The  doctrine,  if  it  is  worthy  of  the  name,  has  been 
disproved  in  every  other  country ;  interest  in  a  subject 
is  secured  not  by  mechanical  continuity  of  daily  recita- 
tion, but  by  the  skill  in  presentation  on  the  part  of 
the   teacher.     Furthermore,  certain  subjects  are  more 


128  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

thoroughly  mastered  when  the  advance  in  the  subject 
moves  more  gradually  in  fewer  recitations  per  week, 
and  time  is  available  for  mental  digestion;  thus,  as 
between  three  terms  of  mathematics,  with  five  periods  a 
week,  and  five  terms  of  three  recitations  a  week,  the  latter 
scheme  is  distinctly  more  favorable  to  a  proper  grasp  of  the 
subject ;  the  growing  difficulties  of  the  subject  are  more 
satisfactorily  mastered  when  spread  over  a  longer  period 
of  time.  For  the  advance  from  absolute  ignorance  in  a 
subject  like  geometry,  to  the  genuine  control  of  the  later 
stages  of  plane  geometry,  is  more  than  the  average  pupil 
mind  can  master  in  the  usual  allotted  time ;  as  a  result, 
memorizing  takes  the  place  of  complete  understanding. 
The  best  educational  opinion  of  the  country  has 
approved  of  this  change,  and  the  best  of  the  tenta- 
tive programs  drawn  up  by  the  Committee  of  Ten 
awards  to  no  subject  more  than  four  periods  per  week. 
In  a  subject  like  history  three  recitations  per  week  for 
four  years  is  infinitely  preferable  to  two  and  a  half  years 
with  five  recitations  a  week.  The  doctrine  of  so  intensi- 
fying the  pursuit  of  a  subject  as  to  complete  it  within 
one  or  two  years  is  a  relic  of  certain  inevitable  tenden- 
cies in  the  old-time  academy,  when  students  attended  ir- 
regularly for  a  year  or  two  at  a  time,  and  felt  the  need 
of  completing  ^  (!)  a  number  of  subjects  within  that  time. 

1  What  do  we  mean  by  the  completion  of  a  subject  like  algebra  ? 
Is  it  not  better  for  a  pupil  to  have  mastered  in  a  year  certain  topics  in 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 29 

The  necessities  of  frontier  and  pioneer  life  naturally 
weighed  heavily  against  rational  educational  procedure ; 
we  may  understand  and  condone  the  unavoidable  short- 
comings of  the  earlier  program,  but  should  not  proclaim 
them  at  this  day  an  educational  benefit  to  the  student. 
With  the  better  organization  of  our  school  system  such 
considerations  should  disappear. 

Much  of  the  waste  in  our  higher  educational  work  is 
due  to  the  still  current  tendency  to  rush  through  a 
subject,  and  then  drop  all  thought  of  it;  it  is  a  fre- 
quent experience  of  students  that  when  they  have 
dropped  all  consideration  of  a  subject  like  mathematics 
for  one  or  two  years,  they  are  unable  to  take  up  an 
advanced  course  in  the  same  subject  without  exten- 
sive restudy  of  fundamentals.  The  unfortunate,  or 
rather  let  us  say,  the  pernicious,  system  of  allowing 
students  to  offer  in  successive  instalments  (3,  4,  5 
and  even  more  are  not  unknown)  the  various  subjects 
required  for  college  entrance  is  distinctly  detrimental 
to  sound  educational  progress  ;  the  teachers  of  college 
freshmen  find  themselves  often  unable  to  build  upon 
definite  attainments  ;  they  must  rehearse  what  has  been 
lost  by  a  part  of  the  student  body. 

Continuity  in  the  pursuit  of  a  subject,  even  with  a  mod- 
algebra  so  thoroughly  that  he  has  acquired  the  power  and  insight  to 
advance  without  aid,  if  necessary  ?     Is  not  the  question  of  the  power 
of  absorption,  of  the  intellectual  digestion,  the  vital  one  ? 
K 


130  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

erate  time-allotment  per  week  of  two  or  three  recitations, 
is  for  the  adolescent  stage  distinctly  preferable  to  an  in- 
tensive and  congested  pursuit,  followed  by  its  premature 
elimination.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  fear  dissipation 
of  intellectual  interest  from  the  prosecution  in  a  given 
year  of  five  instead  of  four  studies  ;  it  is  entirely  a 
matter  of  the  stimulating  influence  by  an  accomplished 
and  enthusiastic  teacher.  Intellectual  torpoi*  is  quite  as 
prevalent  where  but  four  studies  fill  the  student's 
program.  There  dwells  a  natural  desire  in  youth  to 
satisfy  intellectual  curiosity  ;  this  can  be  so  directed  by 
the  skillful  teacher  that  no  danger  of  confused  impres- 
sions need  exist.  The  responsibility  for  awakening 
genuine  interest  in  studies  rests  primarily  with  the 
teacher. 

(d)  The  number  of  recitations  per  week  is  so  intimately 
linked  with  the  character  of  the  teaching,  the  conception 
of  the  recitation,  and  the  extent  of  home  preparation, 
that  these  points  must  be  discussed  in  common.  It  is  still 
the  prevailing  doctrine  that  twenty  recitations  per  week 
is  the  maximum  of  effort  attainable  from  high  school 
pupils,  especially  since  twenty  class-recitations  involve 
unaided  home  preparation  for  as  many  lessons.  And 
because  of  this  assumption  the  programs  of  a  number 
of  schools,  especially  of  certain  academies  and  prepara- 
tory schools,  call  for  even  less  than  twenty  recitations 
per  week.     Under   such  an  arrangement  it  is  natural 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      I3I 

that  even  the  constants  of  a  secondary  course  cannot  be 
properly  offered.  It  is  impossible  to  characterize  this 
arrangement  otherwise  than  as  educational  folly ;  it  is 
inconceivable  that  head  masters  of  such  schools  actually 
believe  that  no  greater  number  of  class  recitations  can 
be  safely  undertaken  with  young  Americans  in  the 
adolescent  stage,  when  all  over  Europe  the  number  of 
weekly  recitations  in  secondary  schools  ranges  between 
twenty-five  and  thirty-four  periods. 

If  it  uiQans  tha.t  the  preparation  for  sixteen  or  eighteen 
recitations  involves  as  much  effort  as  it  is  desirable  for  the 
adolescent  to  make,  then  we  may  fairly  question  the  whole 
doctrine  of  the  class  recitation  and  the  preparation  it 
requires.  What  is  this  doctrine.^  That  the  recitation 
is  primarily  intended  to  determine  the  ability  of  the 
secondary  school  pupil  to  render  a  coherent  and  satis- 
factory account  of  the  mastery  of  a  given  topic  which 
he  has  acquired  in  home  study ;  and  it  is  considered  by 
many  teachers  fundamental  that  he  should  have  acquired 
this  mastery,  unaided  by  previous  guidance  in  class 
work,  from  the  textbook  that  is  at  his  disposal  as  his 
guide.  It  makes  the  textbook  the  main  and  immedi- 
ate source  of  information,  and  assigns  to  it  the  central 
educative  influence  in  the  intellectual  growth  of  the 
pupil. 

This  doctrine,  urged  by  so  eminent  a  scholar  as  Dr. 
Harris  and  others,  attained  general  recognition  when 


132  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

definite  knowledge  of  subject  matter  by  the  individual 
teacher  was  inadequate,  and  in  consequence  the  state- 
ments of  the  text  were  substantially  the  safest  guides  to 
facts.  But  even  textbooks  are  of  all  possible  degrees 
of  accuracy,  excellence,  and  clearness  of  statement, 
according  to  the  literary  and  pedagogical  ability  of 
their  authors ;  some  are  diffuse  and  wordy,  lacking  in 
precision,  others  obscure  from  over-condensation  in  state- 
ment. If,  furthermore,  we  remember  that  the  publica- 
tion of  textbooks  is  often  not  due  to  the  pressure  of 
educational  needs,  that  inherent  merit  does  not  always 
prompt  the  advocacy  of  certain  texts,  that  a  spirit  of 
commercialism  is  not  unknown  even  in  school  boards, 
there  is  abundant  reason  for  a  subordination  of  the  text- 
book to  the  presentation  by  the  well-informed  teacher. 
Our  classroom  exercises  are  often  little  more  than 
uninspired  reproductions,  with  numerous  and  often 
justifiable  misunderstandings,  of  the  language  of  a  text- 
book, and  the  teacher  simply  verifies  the  correct  or  in- 
correct interpretation  of  the  text.  That  this  process  gives 
little  additional  stimulus  to  pupils  who  have  mastered 
the  text,  that  it  exasperates  bright  pupils  to  listen  to 
helpless  and  confused  efforts  at  reproduction  of  the  text- 
book content,  needs  no  proof.  Whilst  many  of  our  best 
teachers  are  combating  this  listless  method  in  their  per- 
sonal handling  of  their  classes,  the  tendency  to  glorify 
the  textbook  is  still  in  the  ascendant ;  as  a  false  and 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 33 

pernicious  doctrine  it  must  be  removed  from  our  school 
work. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  majority  of  our  teachers  are 
still  dependent  on  the  textbook,  and  cannot  safely  be 
trusted  to  emancipate  themselves  from  it,  the  fact  explains 
the  ineffectiveness  of  much  of  our  work,  the  lack  of 
inspiration  in  many  of  our  classes.  Not  that  the  text- 
book is  to  be  discarded  or  superseded  ;  it  is  one  means 
of  presenting  subject  matter.  The  mastery  of  the 
subject  by  the  teacher  must  be  such  that  the  textbook 
is  simply  one  of  several  tools  at  his  disposal ;  in  knowl- 
edge of  subject  matter  he  ought  to  be  as  nearly  as 
possible  the  peer  of  the  author,  drawing  upon  as  varied 
sources  of  information  as  the  author  has  considered. 
The  only  special  merit  of  the  textbook  lies  in  its 
disposition,  adjustment,  and  proportioning  of  subject 
matter.  The  majority  of  our  teachers,  we  are  constantly 
told,  are  incapable  of  the  independent  performance 
suggested  above ;  the  advice  offered  to  them  in  the 
average  textbook  reveals  the  fact  of  their  helplessness, 
their  dilettanteism.^  Such  inadequate  teaching,  a  mere 
semblance  of  what  is  needed,  accounts  for  unsatisfactory 
results. 

For  the  recitations,  as  they  prevail  through  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  the  pupils  make  preparation  at 

1  Betts,  The  Recitation,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1911,  90  ff.  Hender- 
son, Education  and  the  Larger  Life,  p.  224. 


134  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

home,  and  it  is  the  character  and  extent  of  the  prepara- 
tion that  is  appealed  to,  when  an  increase  in  the  number 
of  weekly  recitation  periods  beyond  twenty  is  dreaded. 
Not  the  recitation  periods,  but  the  preparation  for  them, 
burden  the  lives  of  the  pupils.  It  is  alleged  that  to  make 
adequate  preparation  requires  at  least  as  many  hours  of 
home  work  as  the  school  exercises  involve  ;  in  some  sub- 
jects, as  in  mathematics,  we  all  know  that  the  time  required 
for  preparation  is  often  to  the  recitation  period  as  two  to 
one.  What  the  pupil  has  or  has  not  evolved  in  regard  to 
the  new  subject  matter  by  his  individual  unguided  effort 
at  home,  under  conditions  that  are  frequently  most 
unfavorable  to  concentrated  effort,^  he  is  then  to  disclose 
to  the  critical  ear  of  the  teacher;  the  teacher  hears  and 
judges  the  recitation.  "In  former  days"  (they  are 
happily  of  the  past  for  Germany),  says  a  leading  German 
authority  on  pedagogy ,2  "  when  lessons  served  mainly 
as  a  means  of  controlling  the  home  industry  of  the  pupil, 

1  An  exhaustive  study  of  the  conditions  that  surround  home  study, 
and  of  the  value  of  such  preparation  in  a  number  of  tj-pical  studies, 
has  never  been  undertaken,  at  all  events  has  never  been  reported,  in 
this  country.  To  prove  of  re?l  service  to  teachers,  it  should  enlist  for 
a  given  class  the  unremitting  observation  of  a  teacher  for  a  full  school 
year,  and  the  records  obtained  should  be  subjected  to  the  closest 
scrutiny.  A  real  contribution  to  this  subject  is  the  study  recorded  in 
Meumann,  Abhandlungen  zur  psychologischen  Padagogik,  I,  part  3,  and 
undertaken  by  Friedrich  Schmidt,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen 
uber  die  Hausaitfgaben  des  Schulkindes,  Leipzig,  W.  Engelmann,  1904. 

2  W.  Munch,  Geist  des  Lehmmts,  Berlin,  1903,  359. 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      I35 

then  the  veriest  botcher  could  be  a  teacher;  it  was  the 
reign  of  educational  inefficiency." 

Coupled,  then,  with  ineffective  teaching  goes  the 
mistaken  notion  that  there  is  some  value  to  the  stu- 
dent in  his  unaided  attempt  to  surmount  difficulties. 
It  means  a  needless  waste  of  undirected  effort,  which 
might  be  replaced  by  much  admirable  and  effective 
work ;  there  is  not  a  single  redeeming  feature  in  a 
method  that  demands  of  the  pupil  what  it  should  be 
the  proper  function  of  the  teacher  to  carry  out. 
Think  of  the  hours  fruitlessly  spent  in  mathematics 
because  of  the  pupil's  false  point  of  view ;  of  the 
memory  work  in  geometry  that  replaces  exercise  of  the 
reasoning  faculty.  We  teachers  ought  to  know  from 
experience  how  often  a  mere  hint,  a  single  question,  as 
to  the  pivotal  point  of  a  demonstration,  will  make  a 
proposition  in  geometry  clear.  These  hints,  these  di- 
rections, it  should  be  the  privilege  of  the  teacher  to 
suggest  in  the  regular  class  work  that  should  precede 
home  preparation.  In  an  essay  on  science  teaching, 
Professor  Armstrong  of  London  says  :  "  An  even  greater 
reform  will  be  the  abolition  of  much  of  the  lesson  learn- 
ing and  lesson  heari^ig  which  disgrace  our  present 
system.  Instead  of  calling  on  children  to  execute  tasks 
in  school  under  skillful  and  watchful,  but  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, limited,  guidance,  much  of  the  time  is  devoted  to 
hearing  lessons   learnt   under  improper  conditions.     A 


136  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

great  part  of  a  boy's  or  girl's  school  time  is  wasted  in 
looking  on  while  the  work  of  others  is  corrected."  ^ 

The  question  is  pertinent ;  what  is  the  mission  of 
teachers,  if  they  throw  the  intellectual  burden  on  the 
pupil?  Many  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  throw 
around  this  grave  pedagogic  defect  the  glamour  of  a  pro- 
found system  ;2  we  stimulate,  it  is  alleged,  in  the  young, 
through  the  sheer  necessity  of  the  home  assignment, 
the  power  for  creative  insight.  Granting  that  we  do  in 
one  case  out  of  a  hundred,  we  are  reminded  of  those 
cases  of  exceptional  men  that  have  developed  into  great 
engineers,  great  physicians  and  lawyers  without  the 
usual  cultural  training.^ 

We  pay  the  penalty  of  this  insistence  on  unaided 
home  preparation ;  compared  with  actual,  tangible  bene- 
fits to  the  pupils,  the  major  part  of  our  results  is  unsat- 
isfactory. Of  the  pupils,  a  few  are  at  once  capable  and 
conscientious,  a  larger  portion  conscientious,  but  un- 
certain in  their  work ;  these  are  the  ones  most  seriously 
affected ;  they  grope  along  in  vague  misconceptions  and 

1  Armstrong  in  National  Education  (London,  Murray,  1901),  essay  on 
Science  in  Educatioti,  p.  120. 

«  W.  T.  Harris  in  Butler's  Education  in  the  United  States,  I,  87. 

'  Canfield,  "  Adequate  Preparation  for  the  Study  of  Law,"  Columbia 
Quarterly,  IV,  133.  "  Such  a  path  to  successful  service  is  exceedingly 
difficult ;  where  one  treads  it  successfully  thousands  have  been  beaten 
back  —  discouraged  and  disheartened,  with  serious  loss  of  what  might 
otherwise  have  been  positive  productive  power." 


PRESENT  STATUS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  HIGH  SCHOOL   I37 

are  keenly  discouraged  when  the  results  of  many  hours 
of  effort  prove  unsatisfactory.  By  far  the  greatest  por- 
tion of  our  students  develop,  if  they  are  not  from  the 
outset  unreliable,  a  lack  of  conscientiousness ;  if  they 
are  not  totally  indifferent  to  the  outcome,  they  resort  to 
every  imaginable  device,  illegitimate  assistance  or  ficti- 
tious performance  in  their  desire  to  simulate  some  kind 
of  satisfactory  result.  The  injury  to  the  morals  of  the 
individual  and  the  class  is  but  too  obvious,  and  the  sub- 
sequent recitation  is  largely  devoted  to  a  clearing  up  of 
difficulties  to  which  the  class  ought  never  have  been 
subjected. 

This  rejection  of  the  unaided  home  preparation  does 
not  by  any  means  propose  to  substitute  a  state  of 
passive  acceptance  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  for  active 
effort.  By  no  means  does  it  favor  a  process  of 
spontaneous  absorption  in  which  the  teacher  gives  all, 
and  the  pupil  contributes  nothing  but  the  faculty  and 
the  desire  to  accept.  Cooperative  effort  of  teacher  and 
pupils  in  the  classroom  is  to  be  the  substitute  for  the  un- 
desirable division  of  studies  that  is  now  in  vogue.  Such 
cooperation  will  effect  one  change  in  our  school  life  that 
will  in  itself  be  an  index  of  the  vitaHzing  force  of  good 
teaching:  our  classrooms  will  resound  with  life.  The 
recitation  fashion  as  a  test  of  a  pupil's  home  preparation 
breeds  protracted  periods  of  monotony,  of  dullness, 
when  a  dull  pupil  is  under  recitation ;  substitute  for  it 


138  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

the  method  of  developing  and  fixing  knowledge  in  the 
class,  and  the  very  helplessness  of  a  dull  pupil  will 
stimulate  the  cooperation  of  teacher  and  fellow-pupils, 
and  may  afford  the  most  clarifying  results  of  a  lesson. 
There  are  occasions  when  a  connected,  undisturbed 
presentation  of  a  topic  of  recitation  by  a  pupil  is  neces- 
sary and  valuable,  but  these  occasions  should  be  the 
exception,  not  the  rule.^ 

Under  the  eye  of  the  teacher,  and  aided  by  his  di- 
recting questions,  goes  on  the  process  of  comprehension 
of  a  new  topic.  F'alse  assumptions,  false  methods  of 
procedure,  are  corrected  on  the  spot ;  erroneous  notions 
are  not  allowed  to  fasten  themselves  upon  the  minds  of 
the  pupils,  but  are  at  once  revised  ;  there  is  no  virtue, 
as  some  would  maintain,  in  wading  through  error  to  an 
ultimate  view  of  a  truth.  We  know  too  well  how  many 
false  views  permanently  ingraft  themselves  on  the  child's 
mind,  and  are  overlooked  by  the  teacher  who  has  a 
multitude  of  misconceptions  to  remove.  In  the  usual 
recitation  performance  of  our  classrooms,  especially  in 
prolonged  translations  from  one  language  to  another, 
fully  one  half  of  the  errors  (errors  of  fact,  or  of  taste) 
remain  uncorrected ;  even  the  best  teacher  is  unequal 
to  the  impossible  task  of  dwelling  upon  all  the  blemishes 
that  a  protracted  recitation  of  an  individual  pupil  dis- 

1  Henderson,  Education  and  the  Larger  Life,  Houghton  Mifflin  Com- 
pany, 1903,  pp.  225-226. 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF   THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      I39 

closes,  and  the  main  result  is  often  lost  sight  of  in  the 
mass  of  faulty  detail. 

Teachers  err  therefore  who  refrain  from  interruption 
of  a  pupil's  performance  to  secure  what  they  call  an 
undisturbed  recitation ;  no  statement  should  be  allowed 
to  pass  which  calls  for  correction;  the  interruption 
that  points  out  the  source  of  error  is  valuable.  As 
the  net  product  of  all  previous  discussion  we  may 
demand  a  recapitulating  statement  which  should  be 
smooth,  incisive,  and  discriminating.  The  prevalent 
method  of  conducting  a  recitation  is  then  incompatible 
with  satisfactory  class  work;  when  shall  we  be  in 
a  position  to  substitute  for  it  the  idea  of  class  work? 
In  and  with  the  class  we  are  to  work  over  the  topics 
that  are  to  engage  its  attention  ;  those  previously  dis- 
cussed and  acquired  should  be  summarized  in  some 
form  of  review  that  insures  knowledge  of  previously 
attained  facts  and  grasp  of  relationship;  thus  we 
assure  ourselves  of  the  basis  for  further  work.  The 
new  material  is  then  to  be  developed,  partly  from  pre- 
vious experiences  of  the  pupils,  partly  by  inteUigent 
analysis.  We  inspire  confidence  that  leads  to  the  mas- 
tery of  the  new  by  skillfully  utilizing  what  the  pupil  in 
one  or  the  other  direction  has  made  his  own.  It  appears 
that  there  is  much  less  mystery,  much  less  difficulty  in 
the  new  than  the  pupil  has  surmised;  much  of  it  is 
within  his  reach ;  but  the  use  to  be  made  of  actual  pre- 


140  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

vious  knowledge  needs  guidance,  i.e.  the  discreet  ques- 
tioning of  the  teacher.^ 

The  art  of  teaching  involves  a  minimizing  of  diffi- 
culties, a  revelation  of  sequence  and  relationship.  Con- 
creteness  in  language  and  in  illustration,  if  the  teacher 
is  an  adept  in  both  directions,  substitutes  that  which 
is  familiar  for  the  remote,  the  tangible  for  the  abstract.^ 
The  prevailing  belief  that  concreteness  in  instruction  calls 
primarily  for  the  use  of  objects  or  of  pictures  is  not  well 
founded.  It  can  quite  as  frequently  be  attained  by  the 
use  of  striking  word  illustrations ;  it  is  in  fact  of  particu- 
lar value  and  significance  in  the  teaching  of  language 
and  literature.  The  Germans  distinguish  very  clearly  be- 
tween Anschauungsunterricht  and  Anschaulichkeit  im 
Unterricht;  the  latter  is  the  broader  conception,  appli- 
cable even  where  objects  or  pictures  for  purposes  of  il- 
lustration are  not  available. 

Freedom  in  the  progress  of  each  class  e.xercise  will 
naturally  result  from  such  artistic  handling  as  the  com- 
petent teacher  brings  to  his  task;  the  set  order  of  a 
recitation  which  in  many  class  exercises  is  supposed 
to  be  inexorable,  must  yield  to  a  more  flexible  process 

1  Valuable  suggestions  how  the  pupil's  available  fund  of  information 
can  be  utilized,  Willmann  gives  in  his  P'ddagogische  Vortr'dge.  Leipzig 
1896,  especially  in  chap.  IV,  "  Instruction  and  the  Personal  Experience 
of  the  Pupil.' 

^  De  Garmo,  Interest  and  Attention,  Macmillan,  1908,  chap.  IX. 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH    SCHOOL      I41 

in  the  interests  of  the  class  and  of  the  topic.  When  a 
review  is  desirable  to  connect  the  new  field  of  inquiry 
with  the  old,  it  may  take  on  a  variety  of  forms ;  why  may 
we  not  substitute  for  the  formal  review  a  brief  oral 
summary  of  the  last  lesson,  or  on  occasion  reach  back 
farther  to  embrace  in  a  general  sweep  a  comprehen- 
sive survey  of  a  week's  or  a  month's  work  ?  Why  not 
eliminate  the  formal  review  on  a  given  occasion  alto- 
gether, and  yet  glean  its  results,  as  we  advance  into 
the  new  territory?  The  interest  of  a  class  exercise  is 
dependent,  more  than  most  teachers  imagine,  upon 
an  occasional  departure  from  routine.  We  do  not 
sufficiently  realize  the  effect  on  our  pupils  of  recitations 
that  seem  to  follow  a  fixed  formula,  — that  introduce  no 
variation  in  the  question  types,  and  invite  an  almost 
mechanical  sequence  of  formal  statements. 

A  study  of  our  educational  literature  points  to  the 
fact  that  the  art  of  questioning  as  an  educational  factor 
has  received  but  little  attention.^  How  many  teachers 
bear  in  mind  this  fundamental  fact  that  the  question  in 
teaching  differs  completely  in  intent  from  the  question 
in  ordinary  life  .-*     The  teacher  is  not  supposed  to  ask  for 

1  Some  guidance  is  afforded  in  De  Garmo,  Interest  atid  Education, 
chap.  14,  "  The  Art  of  Questioning  "  ;  in  its  analytical  portion  this  chap- 
ter coincides  substantially  with  an  admirable  little  German  treatise  by 
Reinstein,  Die  Frage  im  Unterricht.  Leipzig,  1886.  See  also  Betts, 
The  Recitation,  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  53-78. 


142  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

personal  enlightenment;  he  knows,  he  is  not  sure  whether 
the  pupil  knows.  The  educative  question  tests  the  state 
of  mind  of  the  pupil,  and  it  aims  to  lead  him  (educo)  to 
a  correct  grasp  of  his  topic.  It  seems  to  be  assumed 
that,  given  the  content  of  a  lesson,  it  is  only  necessary 
to  use  the  question  formulas  ("what,"  "how,"  "when," 
"  why  ")  and  the  object  of  questioning  will  be  attained. 
This  is  far  from  the  truth ;  we  have  in  the  question,  in 
the  different  types  of  the  question,  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able instruments  in  teaching.  And  an  exhaustive  study 
of  the  range  of  questioning,  of  its  application  under  vary- 
ing forms  for  varying  purposes,  is  desirable  both  for  the 
possibilities    and   the   limitations  it  reveals. 

With  the  question  is  involved  the  answer  as  part  of 
the  educational  process  ;  the  other  half  of  the  dialogue 
between  teacher  and  pupil.  In  our  acceptance  of  the 
answer  we  must  regard  its  form  as  well  as  its  content ; 
precision  in  form  at  the  earlier  stage  may  later  on 
yield  to  freedom  in  form.  The  answer  unfolds  to  the 
teacher  the  influence  of  his  question,  often  helps  him 
to  realize  whether  his  query  has  been  indirect,  con- 
fusing, misleading,  redundant,  incomplete,  or  the  re- 
verse, whether  it  has  been  apposite  or  too  vague,  too 
comprehensive,  whether  it  marks  a  proper  step  in  a 
series  of  sequences,  etc.  That  the  student's  bent  of 
mind  must  direct  the  progress  of  our  questioning,  we 
are  too  apt  to  forget. 


PRESENT   STATUS   OF   THE   PUBLIC  HIGH   SCHOOL      143 

To  definite  practice  in  the  art  of  questioning  the 
German  seminaries  devote  constant  attention ;  no  part 
of  the  teacher's  training  is  subjected  to  closer  scrutiny, 
and  the  questioning  abiUty  of  the  expert  teacher  is  a 
strangely  interesting  revelation  of  method,  separated  by  a 
far  remove  from  the  catechetical  method  of  former  times.^ 
The  ideal  character  of  all  questioning,  Frick,  one  of  the 
great  masters  of  German  pedagogy,  has  summarized 
in  vol.  16  of  Lehrproben  und  Lehrgdnge,  Halle,  p.  39  : 
"A  properly  devised  questioning  process  must  lead 
systematically  from  a  definite  body  of  connected  infor- 
mation through  a  definitely  connected  chain  of  thought 
to  a  definite  conclusion.  The  starting  point  must  be 
assured,  clear  of  misunderstandings ;  the  progress  must 
be  logical,  without  break  of  continuity  or  treacherous 
overlapping  of  statements;  the  pupils'  conclusion  must 
be  precise,  must  grow  of  necessity  out  of  the  data  off- 
ered, must  not  permit  of  alternative  results." 

A  recent  study  of  this  important  subject  by  Miss 
Romiett  Stevens,^  offered  as  a  doctor's  dissertation  at 
Columbia  University,  is  worthy  of  the  closest  attention; 
on  the  basis  of  an  historical  survey  it  investigates  the 
whole  subject  most  satisfactorily,  and  points  the  way  to 

1  Matthias,  Praktische  Pddagogik,  3d  ed.  Munich,  1908 ;  cf.  the 
section  on  Die  Fragekunst,  pp.  104-114. 

2  Romiett  Stevens,  "  The  Question  as  a  Measure  of  Efficiency  in 
Instruction " :  A  critical  study  in  classroom  practice.  Teachers 
College  Contributions  to  Education,  1912. 


144  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

exercises  in  normal  and  training  schools  that  ought  in 
time  remove  the  stigma  of  mechanical  performance  from 
one  of  the  leading  tools  in  the  teaching  process. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  part  of  the  teacher's 
work  requires  finer  powers  of  discrimination ;  no  other 
form  of  instruction  compels  the  teacher  in  like  degree 
to  investigate  a  topic  thoroughly,  to  grasp  the  intellectual 
needs  and  capabilities  of  his  pupils,  to  be  free  from  any 
delusions  as  to  his  successive  efforts.  The  attempt  to 
elicit  clearness  out  of  hazy,  indefinite  premises  defeats 
itself  every  time  ;  it  is  like  a  definition  in  terms  that  are 
themselves  not  clearly  comprehended.  And  the  neces- 
sity of  restraint,  the  compactness  of  expression  which  is 
an  ideal  of  the  questioning  method,  affords  one  of  the 
highest  tests  of  pedagogic  ability. 

We  realize  how  even  adults  grow  restive  under  the 
monotony  of  sermons  and  addresses  that  reveal  too 
clearly  a  set  form  of  subdivisions  and  captions;  how 
much  more  destructive  of  genuine  interest  must  such 
adherence  to  an  inflexible  type  of  questioning  be  to  the 
pupil,  subjected  to  it  year  in,  year  out!  The  unex- 
pected, the  element  of  surprise  in  the  conduct  of  a  reci- 
tation, the  air  of  expectancy  that  is  engendered  by  a 
teacher  who  approaches  his  subject  from  any  one  of  a 
number  of  points  of  view,  whose  active  mind  sees  rela- 
tionships that  are  not  patent  to  the  average  observer, 
these  are  very  distinct  means  of  counteracting  the  dead 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF    THE    PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 45 

level  of  routine  performance.  More  effective  than  a 
correlation  that  is  deliberately  sought,  and  too  often 
overworked,  is  the  natural  correlation  that  suggests  it- 
self to  a  richly  informed  mind ;  that  finds  points  of 
contact  and  comparison  in  seemingly  distinct  lines  of 
experience. 

Flexibility  in  the  conduct  of  class  exercise  must, 
however,  go  hand  in  hand  with  definiteness  of  aim ; 
in  much  higher  degree  than  where  the  subdivisions  of 
a  textbook,  the  number  of  pages  or  chapters  allotted, 
mark  the  tale  of  the  daily  performance,  must  the  teacher 
in  advance  have  mapped  out  his  plan  for  the  class  ex- 
ercise. Just  so  much  he  proposes  to  undertake,  so  much 
is  to  be  accomplished  before  the  hour  is  concluded; 
he  must  realize  the  peculiar  difficulties  inherent  in  his 
subject  matter,  the  degree  of  responsiveness  of  his 
pupils  ;  he  will  modify,  as  occasion  demands,  the  rate  of 
advance,  the  proportion  of  repetition  and  drill  required  to 
secure  definite  control  of  the  new  material,  he  will  in- 
volve in  the  progress  of  the  work  every  member  of  his 
class  by  the  subtle  alternation  of  the  expository  and  the 
question-and-answer  method.  The  current  complaint  of 
pupils  in  many  of  our  classes  :  "  I  have  not  been  called 
upon  to  recite  to-day,"  should  become  obsolete ;  in  a 
properly  conducted  class  exercise  there  should  prevail  the 
feeling  that  a//  pupils  are  under  recitation  all  the  time, 
i.e.  there  ought  to  be  no  moment  when  any  pupil  should 


146  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

not  be  ready  to  demonstrate  his  participation  in  the 
given  exercise.  It  rests  with  the  teacher  to  create  and 
maintain  this  relation  of  all  pupils  to  the  topic  in  hand. 
The  conduct  of  this  type  of  class  exercise  is  far  removed 
from  the  accepted  form  of  our  recitations.  It  means  a 
much  greater  demand  on  the  mental  activity  of  each 
teacher,  on  his  didactic  skill ;  but  it  is  the  only  form  of 
teaching  worthy  of  the  name,  the  only  form  that  will  in- 
sure substantial  intellectual  results.  If  our  candidate 
teachers  are  reluctant  to  face  such  demands,  then  they 
have  mistaken  their  caUing,  and  we  must  steadily  main- 
tain our  demand  until  we  secure  the  new  type  of  teacher, 
adequate  to  face  the  new  requirement.  The  improve- 
ment of  our  work  will  never  issue  from  improved  text- 
books or  more  scientific  arrangement  of  courses ;  it  is 
bound  up  in  the  ability  and  active  performance  of  the 
teacher. 

The  abandonment  of  the  antiquated  conception  of 
the  recitation  is  a  fundamental  factor  in  the  improve- 
ment of  our  teaching.  The  transition  to  the  new  type 
of  class  exercise  will  at  first  prove  strange  to  our  pupils; 
the  call  for  concentrated  attention  means  some  readjust- 
ment of  their  intellectual  habits,  but  the  obvious  gain  in 
definite  attainment,  in  active  guidance  as  contrasted 
with  their  former  aimless  groping,  will  make  its  appeal 
to  them  in  a  new  light.  They,  as  well  as  their  parents, 
will  appreciate  the  marked  economy  in  effort  for  which 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      I47 

the  new  conception  of  the  class  exercise  stands.  This 
will  be  particularly  manifest  in  the  modified  role  that 
will  be  assigned  to  home  work ;  it  is  not  to  be  discarded 
altogether,  but  its  object  is  primarily  to  verify  the  grasp 
on  new  information  the  pupil  has  attained,  through 
the  joint  labors  of  teacher  and  pupil  in  the  class.  It 
will  bring  to  the  teacher  evidence  that  his  class  efforts 
have  been  successful,  that  the  pupil  has  acquired  an  in- 
sight which  perseveres  and  which  he  can  without  diffi- 
culty apply.  It  does  not  preclude  in  the  higher  stages 
efforts  that  call  for  original  work,  original  problems  in 
mathematics,  interpretation  of  selections  in  foreign  lan- 
guages, essays,  etc.,  but  the  cardinal  principle  obtains 
that  the  classroom  and  class  exposition  are  the  proper 
centers  for  the  acquisition  of  power,  and  only  when  such 
power  has  been  definitely  secured  will  the  pupil  be 
called  upon  to  give  evidence  of  it  in  unassisted  work. 

Oui  doctrine  of  unguided  home  work  is  curiously  con- 
tradictory of  Dr.  Butler's  and  John  Fiske's  insistence 
on  the  value  to  the  human  race  of  the  lengthening 
period  of  infancy  ;  we  seem  at  the  very  beginning  of 
adolescence  inclined  to  remove  suddenly  the  props  that 
should  guide  our  young  people,  and  instead  of  continu- 
ing our  wiser  guidance,  we  compel  them  to  shift  for 
themselves  ;  what  discomfiture  this  method  has  brought 
to  the  majority  of  our  secondary  school  pupils,  teachers 
themselves  are  best  able  to  judge. 


148  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

A  change  of  emphasis  then  in  the  relations  between 
home  preparation  and  class  exercise  will  remove  the 
main  obstacle  to  an  increase  in  the  number  of  class 
periods  for  purposes  of  instruction.  It  will  require 
no  further  proof  that  twenty-five  periods  of  class  work 
under  this  changed  method  will  mean  less  hardship 
to  the  pupil  than  twenty  periods  under  present  con- 
ditions. We  may  dismiss  as  unworthy  of  attention  the 
pretence  that  pupils  of  the  high  school  stage  cannot 
well  compass  a  more  arduous  school  day  than  one  of 
four  solid  teaching  hours  of  sixty  minutes  each.  By 
what  reasoning  could  we  justify  the  assumption  that  a 
diminution  in  the  hours  of  daily  school  attendance  from 
the  requirements  of  the  elementary  school  is  desirable 
for  the  high  school  pupil  ?  As  in  the  case  of  the  five  reci- 
tations in  each  subject  per  week  which  were  once  deemed 
essential,  we  have  attached  to  an  accident  of  conven- 
ience the  significance  of  a  principle. 

In  a  number  of  high  schools  throughout  the  country, 
particularly  in  the  Middle  West,  the  claim  that  longer 
attendance  in  daily  session  is  undesirable  or  injurious  has 
been  disproved  in  actual  practice,  and  under  improved 
methods  of  teaching  there  is  no  reason  why  the  system, 
now  operative  in  a  limited  number  of  schools,  should  not 
be  generally  adopted.  The  scheme  of  the  Indianapohs 
Manual  Training  School,  and  of  similar  high  schools,  for 
a  full  high  school   day  (a   morning   session,  followed, 


PRESENT   STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH    SCHOOL      I49 

after  a  liberal  noon  recess,  by  an  afternoon  session  of  two 
to  two  and  one  half  hours,  devoted  to  various  forms 
of  instruction  in  the  manual  arts,  to  designing,  pat- 
terning, shop  work,  and  to  physical  exercise),  evidently 
appeals  to  communities  that  look  upon  the  period  of 
the  high  school  as  one  of  serious  preparation  for  the 
exigencies  of  professional  and  business  life. 

It  is  important  to  emphasize  this  point  of  view.  An 
amiable  spirit  of  dilettantism  has  tended  to  weaken  the 
intellectual  and  moral  fiber  of  our  adolescents ;  it  has 
undermined  the  significance  of  genuine  secondary 
school  work  by  attaching  to  extraneous  activities  that 
are  either  useless  or  injurious,  at  all  events  alien  to 
intellectual  interests,  an  importance  to  which  they  are 
not  entitled.  In  the  life  of  the  school,  as  in  the  larger 
life  of  the  community,  the  ''recall''  may  be  necessary 
as  a  means  of  escape  from  our  own  shortsightedness. 

Our  educational  aims  are  seriously  hampered  by  the 
weakness  of  family  life  in  the  community,  by  the  lack 
of  positiveness,  the  excessive  indulgence  or  the  indiffer- 
ence of  parents ;  and  the  social  philosopher  who  sug- 
gests the  abdication  of  control  in  favor  of  the  "  self 
realization"  of  the  young,  which  often  amounts  to  hardly 
more  than  waywardness  and  insubordination,  may  do  well 
to  consider  the  words  of  warning  of  men  like  Sadler,^ 

1  Sadler,  "  Impressions  of  American  Education,"  Educational  Review^ 
March,  1903,  221. 


150  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

Faunce,^  and  Wheeler.^  Has  the  plea  to  "respect 
the  individuality  of  the  child  "^  (which  within  sane 
limits  no  sensible  teacher  loses  sight  of)  not  been 
responsible  for  the  nurturing  of  that  "  undeveloped 
morality"  to  which  Jane  Addams  {Twenty  Years  in 
Hull  House)  ascribes  much  of  our  municipal  corrup- 
tion ?  A  consideration  of  the  distracting  and  deterrent 
influences  that  operate  against  effectiveness  in  the 
secondary  school  makes  plain  the  duty  of  the  teacher 
if  he  realizes  the  importance  of  his  mission ;  he  above 
all  others  should  speak  unequivocally  on  this  point. 
If  the  function  we  assign  to  the  secondary  school  as 
a  formative  influence  for  later  life  is  that  of  effectively 
developing  and  disciplining  the  intellect  of  the  pupil, 
then  it  cannot  be  met  by  a  half-hearted,  easygoing 
process ;  it  is  uncompromisingly  a  serious  task,  and 
as  such  must  be  realized  by  teachers,  pupils,  and  par- 
ents. And  the  realization  of  the  seriousness  of  the 
task  cannot  be  attained  too  early. 

The  adoption  of  a  solid  twenty-five-period  program 
for   the   entire  high  school   course,   coupled  with    the 

*  Faunce,  "  Moral  Education  in  the  Public  Schools,"  Educational 
Review,  April,  1903,  340. 

»  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  "  Things  Human,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov., 
1902,  641. 

' "  Often  an  equivalent  for  permitting  the  pupil  to  do  what  he 
pleases."  H.  Thiselton  Mark,  Individuality  and  the  Moral  Aim  in 
American  Education.     Longmans,  1901,  155  ff. 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF    THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      151 

requirement  of  illuminating  teaching  by  the  teacher, 
and  the  substitution  of  a  qualitative  for  a  merely 
quantitative  measure  of  attainment,  would  at  one  stroke 
enable  the  high  school  to  substitute  for  the  congested 
status  of  the  present-day  curriculum  a  generous  and 
rational  growth  in  the  subjects  selected  for  presentation. 
Two  other  considerations  deserve  a  word  of  comment : 
I.  The  question  of  the  number  of  periods  of  teaching 
that  may  be  normally  assigned  to  the  teacher.  With 
the  change  in  the  character  of  the  teaching  here  ad- 
vocated, we  cannot  expect  an  excessive  number  of  teach- 
ing hours  of  the  masters.  The  type  of  teaching  involved 
makes  far  more  strenuous  demands  on  the  physical  and 
mental  energies  of  the  teacher  ;  on  the  other  hand,  some 
of  the  energy  that  has  gone  out  into  disciphnary  activity 
will  be  available  for  intellectual  effort  when  the  class 
exercise  is  suffused  with  vitality  and  vigor,  and  Ustless- 
ness,  which  is  the  product  of  poor  teaching  methods, 
no  longer  tempts  to  mischief.  A  capable,  vigorous 
teacher  may  be  expected  to  teach  a  maximum  of  twenty 
periods  per  week;  with  the  supplementary  work  inci- 
dental to  his  CQnduct  of  the  classes,  such  as  preparation 
of  experiments,  correction  of  papers,  outlining  of  paral- 
lel readings,  and  the  work  of  an  administrative  character 
which  forms  part  of  every  teacher's  duties,  this  limit 
should  not  be  exceeded  ;  it  is  slightly  below  the  average 
called  for  in  European  schools.     In  a  twenty-five-period 


152  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

school  program,  then,  there  will  have  to  be  an  increase 
in  the  teaching  force,  and  this  increase,  though  apparently 
an  additional  financial  burden  on  the  community,  is 
required  in  the  interests  of  real  economy,  of  the  best 
results  for  a  given  outlay. 

2.  The  study  periods  as  part  of  the  secondary  school 
day  should  be  abolished ;  they  are  largely  wasteful  and 
ineffective ;  they  have  been  introduced  primarily  to 
conceal  inadequacies  in  the  available  teaching  force  ;  at 
times,  three  or  four  sections,  each  of  which  ought  to  be 
under  the  instruction  of  a  teacher,  are  grouped  in  an 
assembly  room  under  one  teacher  who  is  exercising 
monitorial  function,  and  who  is  unable  frequently,  from 
the  nature  of  his  own  studies,  to  aid  the  students  in  their 
difficulties.  In  coeducational  classes  these  study  oe- 
riods  give  rise  to  distractions  of  an  undesirable  nature ; 
the  segregation  of  the  two  sexes  in  the  Cleveland  high 
schools  during  study  periods  is  an  attempt  to  obviate 
one  of  the  most  patent  disadvantages.^ 

From  the  standpoint  of  justice  to  the  needs  of  the  pupils, 
the  system  of  the  study  period  is  at  its  worst  when  in 
the  same  classroom  a  part  of  the  pupils  are  under  reci- 
tation, the  rest  assigned  to  study.  Both  divisions  are 
then  the  sufferers;  the  sections  under  recitation  do  not 
secure  the  undivided  attention  of  their  teacher,  and  are 

»  On  Segregation  in  Study  Periods,  cf.  Report  Comm.  Education,  1909, 
I,  p.  180. 


PRESENT    STATUS    OF   THE   PUBLIC   HIGH   SCHOOL      1 53 

often  distracted  by  the  behavior  and  performance  of 
non-participants,  the  others  spend  time  more  or  less 
aimlessly,  and  the  net  result  of  their  undirected  work  is 
out  of  all  relation  to  the  time  occupied.^  We  lament 
that  our  school  days  are  congested,  and  yet  we  deliber- 
ately reduce  the  time  available  for  teaching  by  these 
stop-gaps.  In  truth  the  entire  school  session  should 
be  devoted  to  teaching ;  in  every  period  a  responsible 
teacher  should  be  conducting  a  class  exercise  in  which 
all  students  in  the  room  should  participate.  The  system 
of  the  study  period  is  practically  an  admission  that  we 
are  giving  part  time  instruction  ;  the  hue  and  cry  against 
part  time  instruction  in  our  large  cities,  where  it  is  due 
to  the  inability  of  the  school  authorities  to  provide  seating 
accommodations  for  the  rapidly  increasing  school  popu- 
lation, might  be  reechoed  in  every  country  high  school 
where  there  is  a  shortage  in  the  teaching  staff.  As  usual 
in  such  cases,  the  tendency  to  temporize  and  palliate  has 
given  rise  to  the  claim  of  certain  wonderful  educational 
advantages  in  a  makeshift  that  is  without  qualification 
injurious  to  the  efficiency  of  the  school.  Our  children 
need  to  be  trained  how  to  study,  but  such  training  is 
not  afforded  in  the  study  periods  of  our  high  schools. 

1  The  difficulty  is  frankly  recognized  by  Bagley,  Classroom  Manage- 
ment, chap.  XIII,  but  he  battles  uselessly  with  the  attempt  to  suggest 
an  elimination  of  the  waste  ;  the  remedy  must  be  a  radical  one,  —  elimi- 
nation of  the  study  period. 


CHAPTER   II 

The  Private  Secondary  School 

In  contrast  with  the  public  high  school  whose  instruc- 
tion is  free  to  all  entering  students  and  whose  cost  is 
met  from  the  public  funds  of  the  community,  all  schools 
that  are  supported  by  the  payment  of  tuition  fees  for 
instruction  offered,  may  be  grouped  together  as  private 
schools.  In  relatively  few  cases,  as  in  a  few  academies, 
endowment  funds  of  remote  or  more  recent  creation  as- 
sure a  certain  financial  stability,  and  enable  the  school 
to  assume  in  material  equipment  and  in  teachers'  salaries 
an  outlay  beyond  that  warranted  by  tuition  fees  ;  with 
few  exceptions,  however,  the  income  from  such  endow- 
ments represents  but  a  small  fractional  part  of  the  total 
income  and  is  furthermore  often  designed  by  the  nature 
of  the  gifts  to  assist  deserving  students  who  are  unable 
to  meet  the  expenses  of  private-school  instruction.  The 
private  school  depends  in  the  main  for  its  support  on 
the  approval  of  its  methods  by  its  patrons.  The  parents 
of  all  pupils  at  a  private  secondary  school  are  at  the 
same  time  taxpayers  and  contributors  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  public  high  school.     If,  therefore,  they  incur  this 

154 


THE   PRIVATE   SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 55 

additional  expense,  which  is  at  times  very  heavy,  they 
must  be  prompted  to  their  choice  of  a  private  school 
by  considerations  that  ought  to  be  reflected  in  its 
character.  The  private  school  is  in  their  eyes  a 
better  or  a  more  desirable  one  than  the  public  high 
school  —  better,  if  it  has  a  well-established  reputation 
for  excellence  of  its  teaching  faculty,  for  definiteness 
and  continuity  in  educational  method,  for  intelligent 
conception  of  the  individual  student's  needs,  for  abiding 
influence  on  the  character  of  its  students  by  a  prestige 
that  has  become  to  successive  classes  a  tradition  — 
more  desirable,  if  it  assures  a  certain  social  atmosphere 
in  teachers  and  students  that  many  parents  consider  a 
more  important  factor  than  educational  excellence. 

It  may  at  once  be  said  that  the  craving  for  a  private  school 
as  a  socially  desirable  grouping  of  students  introduces 
an  element  fraught  with  danger  to  the  school,  and  alien  to 
the  vitalizing  force  which  inheres  in  a  broadly  democratic 
conception  of  society.  The  ability  or  the  readiness  of 
parents  to  meet  the  financial  requirements  of  such  a 
school  furnishes  no  evidence  that  they  or  their  children 
are  socially  or  morally  desirable.  It  is  unpardonable, 
certainly  unprofessional,  to  find  schools  pandering  to 
these  unworthy  grounds  of  preference;  it  accounts 
for  the  prejudice  and  hostility  against  the  private 
schools   that   is  found  in  many  parts  of   our  country. 

The  judgment  and  freedom  in  choice  and  retention  of 


156  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

pupils  that  a  strong  administrative  head  of  such  a  school 
exercises  is  the  main  guarantee  of  a  sound  standard  of 
desirability,  and  the  free  use  of  this  discriminating 
judgment  is  at  once  one  of  the  most  important  and 
deHcate  prerogatives  of  the  principal.  He  will,  if  he  is 
wise,  relegate  this  factor  of  desirability  to  the  secondary 
place  it  deserves,  and  make  the  standing  of  his  school 
dependent  on  the  positive  elements  of  excellence  which 
stamp  his  school  as  the  better  one. 

As  already  stated,  the  value  of  a  private  school 
should  be  gauged  by  its  teachers,  by  its  educational 
policy  in  which  the  convictions  of  its  leader  should 
find  expression,  and  by  its  vital  response  to  the  inter- 
ests of  those  entrusted  to  its  care.  By  its  excellence 
in  all  these  respects  a  private  school  must  be  judged, 
must  stand  or  fall;  it  has  no  reason  for  existence 
unless  it  has  in  all  these  directions  something  to  offer 
that  is  unattainable  in  the  public  high  school.  It 
is  such  a  school  that  Dr.  Harris  considered  a  necessary 
element  in  our  educational  scheme ;  ^  by  what  it  con- 
tributes positively  to  the  educational  possibilities  of 
the  country,  it  should  be  measured. 

A  private  school,  then,  that  is  primarily  a  commercial 
venture,  may  be  of  benefit  to  its  enterprising  head;  the 
community  derives  no  advantage  from  it.     To  make  it  of 

1  Wm.  T.  Harris,  "  Education  in  the  United  States,"  in  Shaler's  The 
United  States  0/ America;  cf.  English  Special  Reports,  VII,  355. 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  1 57 

positive  value,  its  head  should  atthevery  outset  appreciate 
from  close,  personal  study  the  merits  and  difficulties  of  the 
public  high  school,  and  offer  to  his  paying  patrons  a 
scheme  that  compasses  the  excellencies  and  obviates  the 
disadvantages  inherent  in  the  larger  and  often  unv^ieldy 
undertaking;  he  should  assume  on  the  strength  of  per- 
sonal conviction  and  initiative  the  final  responsibility 
for  the  educational  belief  that  finds  expression  in  his 
undertaking.  With  a  mind  receptive  to  modifications 
in  educational  procedure,  and  critical  in  their  valuation, 
he  can  experiment  where  experimentation  on  a  larger 
scale,  in  a  public  educational  system,  might  be  premature  ; 
personally  directing  and  observing  an  innovation,  he 
can  develop  its  fullest  possibilities,  or  can  without  serious 
impairment  alter  a  poHcy  that  does  not  work  out  well  in 
practice. 

The  privileges  and  responsibility  of  a  private  school 
principal  center  in  his  attitude  toward  educational 
thought ;  he  realizes  that  he  must  face  the  brunt  of  the 
issue ;  a  mistake  in  educational  judgment  may  react 
upon  him.  The  issues  involved  are  not  merely  matters 
of  theoretic,  abstract  correctness;  he  must  realize  the 
needs  of  his  community;  if  his  scheme  of  school  work 
adequately  answers  this  need,  it  deserves  to  be  success- 
ful. It  is  clear  that  the  greater  flexibihty  attaching  to 
the  smaller  numbers  of  the  private  school  permits  and 
invites  experiments.     The  history  of  educational  move- 


158  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

ment  with  us,  as  in  other  countries,  bears  witness  to  the 
value  of  personal  enthusiasm  in  the  furtherance  of  new 
methods ;  the  element  of  personal  responsibility  is  a 
reasonable  safeguard  against  foolhardy,  ill-considered  in- 
novations. The  readiness  of  private  school  principals  to 
test  departures  from  current  methods  is  worthy  of  special 
commendation,  seeing  that  it  is  undoubtedly  easier  and 
safer  to  move  along  conventional  lines. 

Exception  must  be  taken,  however,  to  Dr.  Harris's 
further  inferences ;  he  would  have  the  administrators  of 
the  public  school  educational  system  wait  for  the  results 
of  experimentation  in  the  private  schools.  Why  should 
not  the  public  school  superintendents,  if  convinced  of 
the  pedagogic  value  of  a  new  thought,  test  them  di- 
rectly ?  Some  of  our  best  superintendents  are  actively 
engaged  in  such  experimentation ;  they  carry  it  on  in  a 
few  selected  schools  before  they  embody  the  results  in 
the  whole  of  the  school  system. 

Mere  mechanical  expertness  then  is  not  a  sufficient 
vindication  for  the  private  school  enterprise  ;  as  the  pub- 
lic schools  grow  in  efficiency,  the  private  school  must,  if 
it  would  keep  pace,  not  only  maintain  its  special  advan- 
tages, but  increase  them.  At  present  the  most  obvious 
difficulties  of  the  private  school  he  in  the  direction  of 
equipment;  without  endowment,  without  the  great  num- 
bers that  make  adequate  financial  return  possible,  it  is 
not  easy  to  provide  the  facihties  in  laboratory  equip- 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 59 

ment,  in  libraries,  in  illustrative  material  that  are  recog- 
nized as  essential. 

The  main  advantage  of  the  private  school  must  cen- 
ter in  the  selection  of  its  teaching  staff.  In  the  esti- 
mation of  its  patrons  the  conduct  of  the  individual 
teacher  is  of  the  greatest  significance,  and  in  each 
case  the  choice  should  be  made  not  only  on  the  basis 
of  efficiency,  but  also  of  character.  Whatever  may 
be  said  in  favor  of  the  competitive  system  of  examina- 
tion in  the  public  school  system  to  insure  definiteness 
of  intellectual  attainment,  it  furnishes  neither  a  char- 
acter test  nor  an  assurance  of  teaching  ability.  The 
principal  of  a  private  school,  with  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  his  constituency  and  of  his  peculiar  problems,  and  with 
the  keen  eye  that  personal  responsibility  is  apt  to  train, 
is  likely  to  probe  more  minutely  than  the  larger  public 
system  is  capable  of  doing;  he  will  fix  his  own  standards 
of  measuring  the  attainments  of  prospective  teachers, 
for  the  competitive  system  affords  only  a  relative  meas- 
urement; he  knows,  furthermore,  that  a  teacher  with 
an  excellent  record  elsewhere  may  not  be  as  successful 
in  new  surroundings,  and  his  engagements  of  teachers 
are  frankly  contingent  upon  acceptability  that  can  only 
be  revealed  in  actual  class  management.  A  private 
school  is  not  obliged  to  carry  for  a  length  of  time  on  its 
staff,  as  the  public  system  so  often  does,  teachers  who 
are  temperamentally  disqualified.     The  opportunity  of 


l6o  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

the  private  school  to  rid  itself  promptly  of  the  incubus 
of  incapacity  or  incompatibility  is  a  distinct  advantage. 
It  is,  however,  far  from  the  interests  of  a  good  private 
school  to  create  a  feeling  of  insecurity  of  tenure  among 
its  teachers;  the  more  individual  tendency  for  which  it 
stands,  requires  permanence  and  a  certain  continuity  of 
its  effective  teachers. 

From  its  nature  the  private  secondary  school  incurs 
another  type  of  difficulties  with  which  the  public  high 
school  is  not  compelled  to  cope ;  it  may  to  some  extent  be 
itself  responsible  for  the  perplexity  of  the  situation.  With 
its  attractive  offering  of  smaller  classes,  of  the  conse- 
quent increase  in  attention  to  the  individual  student, 
and  of  carefully  selected  teachers,  it  has  seemed  able 
to  accomplish  what  the  pubHc  high  school  cannot  fully 
realize  —  not  merely  to  instruct,  but  to  educate,  i.e. 
to  assist  the  pupil  through  the  information  he  has  ac- 
quired to  a  proper  adaptation  of  himself  to  his  larger 
environment  in  the  social  body.  The  special  mission  of 
the  private  school  has  been,  however,  misconceived  and 
abused  by  a  portion  of  the  community  that  is  altogether 
too  ready  to  divest  itself  of  its  own  proper  responsibil- 
ities, and  to  thrust  them  upon  those  who  are  capable  to  in- 
cur them.  The  school  is  first  and  last  an  integral  part  of 
the  social  fabric ;  to  make  it  an  unrelated  gathering  of 
individuals,  each  one  of  whom  is  to  be  treated  as  though 
his  particular  growth  and  progress  were,  for  the  time 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  l6l 

being,  the  sole  issue,  is  to  defeat  its  purpose;  the  pupil  is 
not  to  be  set  off  by  himself,  and  no  experiment  that  segre- 
gates him  or  his  interests  by  any  artificial  process  deserves 
to  be  considered  educative.  And,  above  all,  the  school  is 
not,  should  not  be,  an  educative  factor  merely ;  it  edu- 
cates in  and  through  the  utstrnction  which  is  its  special 
business.  When  it  consents  to  take  the  place  of  the 
home,  to  do  what  parents  have  neglected  to  do,  when 
it  devotes  itself  too  exclusively  to  the  building  up  of 
character,  it  dissipates  its  forces ;  the  exhausting  demand 
of  duties  which  parents  are  prone  to  delegate  in  con- 
scienceless fashion  to  the  teacher,  works  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  best  teaching  power  in  our  schools. 

It  is  frankly  admitted  in  some  of  our  best  boarding 
academies  that  instruction  cannot  reach  the  high  plane, 
otherwise  attainable,  because  of  the  prejudicial  effect 
of  morally  and  socially  untrained  pupils;  but  the  bur- 
den is  also  felt  in  private  day  schools,  to  which  many 
parents  turn  over  their  children  with  the  expressed  de- 
mand that  the  school  shall  do  all  that  is  to  be  done  for 
the  pupil  intellectually,  morally,  and  socially,  —  the  par- 
ents meanwhile  pursuing  their  own  duties  and  pleasures, 
among  which  the  supervision  of  their  children's  welfare 
does  not  figure.  Against  this  tendency  of  the  remiss 
parent  it  is  the  duty  of  the  school  to  protest ;  to  acquiesce 
in  such  proposals,  to  condone  such  flagrant  neglect,  will 
involve  the  school  to  an  extent  that  must  prove  hurtful 


l62  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

to  its  essential  obligations,  the  development  of  sound 
educational  processes.  Is  it  not  unreasonable  to  expect 
that  which  is  a  burden  to  parents  to  be  performed  more 
effectively  by  one  who  is  vicariously  acting  for  them, 
who  cannot  realize  the  various  conditions  that  have 
been  contributing  within  the  family  to  a  child's  devel- 
opment ?  The  respective  functions  of  home  and  school 
are  clearly  discriminated  by  a  leading  German  thinker:^ 
"  In  addition  to  the  fundamental  habits  of  Hfe  and  simple 
concepts  of  relation  to  the  world  at  large,  the  family  is 
to  guard  and  promote  the  life  of  the  soul,  the  emotions ; 
according  to  its  measure  of  refinement  it  will  develop  in 
the  child  the  standards  of  gentle  breeding,  of  tactful  in- 
tercourse with  others,  and  will  foster  any  specific  inter- 
ests, the  presence  of  which  it  recognizes  (music,  painting, 
manual  skill),  seeing  that  they  are  particularly  effective 
as  a  pleasurable  avocation.  It  is  the  function  of  the 
home  to  define  and  control  the  rela.xations,  the  amuse- 
ments that  serve  to  supplement  and  stimulate  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  child.  To  the  school  is  to  be  assigned 
the  duty  of  making  the  child  a  willing  and  useful  mem- 
ber of  a  corporate  body,  of  training  him  to  strict  order,  to 
acceptance  of  authority;  it  is  to  lead  to  definite  exercise 
of  the  child's  intelligence  and  will,  to  concentrated  appli- 
cation; it  is  to  transmit  what  is  desirable  of  the  fund  of 
available  knowledge,  is  to  train  in  thought,  in  precise 

1  W.  Munch,  Geist  des  Lehramts,  p.  266. 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  1 63 

and  effective  use  of  language,  is  to  promote  by  diverse 
exercises  mental  alertness,  and  through  all  these  dis- 
ciplinary arts  is  to  create  definite  ideals  of  conduct,  for 
which  the  part  that  the  home  has  contributed  is  to  form 
the  concrete  basis." 

That  this  absence  of  cooperation  and  of  some  exer- 
cise of  authority  in  the  home  is  one  of  the  most  vulner- 
able points  in  our  national  life  cannot  be  gainsaid :  the 
school  must  emphasize  the  plea  for  family  influence 
against  an  individualism  that  runs  riot,  that  sets  at 
defiance  the  experience  and  the  coercive  moderation 
born  of  experience.  How  these  social  shortcomings 
influence  the  institution  created  to  counteract  their 
tendencies,  is  but  too  apparent;  they  often  nullify 
the  effort  to  establish  in  place  of  ingrained  selfishness, 
which  is  usually  the  result  of  poor  home  training,  a 
spirit  of  communal  interest,  of  consideration  for  one's 
fellow  beings,  of  acceptance  of  service,  of  willing  obedi- 
ence. We  need  not  wonder  that  in  the  face  of  this 
supreme  necessity  of  counteracting  the  moral  obliquity 
which  parental  indifference  or  indulgence  has  allowed 
to  thrive,  the  headmaster  of  a  private  school  finds  little 
room  for  the  consideration  of  ideals  in  education. 

Under  these  abnormal  conditions  the  majority  of 
our  private  schools  cannot  attain  a  standard  which 
should  be  the  justification  for  their  existence ;  they 
cannot  be  the  valuable  testing  ground  for  broader  edu- 


164  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

cational  efforts.  It  is  significant  that  many  sincere 
headmasters,  helpless  because  of  the  false  position  in 
which  they  find  themselves,  and  realizing  the  funda- 
mental necessity  of  character  building,  sacrifice  to  this 
need  the  other  standards  of  scholarship  and  intellectual 
vigor.  But  they  abdicate  their  specific  functions  if 
they  do  not  insistently  maintain  as  their  aim  character 
plus  scholarship ;  it  is  a  distinct  misfortune  that  the 
intellect  and  thoughtfulness  of  such  men  is  spent  in 
a  direction  which  prevents  them  from  contributing  as 
they  might  to  the  reconstruction  or  readjustment  of 
the  scheme  of  instruction. 

In  the  smaller  size  of  its  classes,  in  the  quality  of 
its  teaching  personnel,  and  in  the  opportunity  for  spe- 
cific and  detailed  control  in  method  are  embodied  the 
distinguishing  features  of  the  private  school.  It  ought, 
therefore,  to  be  in  a  position  to  obviate  many  of  the 
disadvantages  of  the  public  high  school,  notably  that 
of  incomplete  correlation  in  the  work  of  successive 
stages.  The  diflficulties  of  transition  from  one  type  of 
school  to  another,  from  an  elementary  to  a  secondary 
type,  should  not  exist ;  a  genuine  continuity  in  edu- 
cational growth  ought  to  be  its  dominant  feature,  and  a 
marked  gain  in  educational  economy  should  be  the 
inevitable  result. 

It  might  be  urged  as  an  objection  to  the  continuance 
of  the  pupil  in  one  and  the  same  school  that  a  change 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 65 

in  methods  of  instruction  is  desirable  during  so  pro- 
tracted a  period  as  a  ten-year  course,  that  adolescents 
require  a  different  method  of  instruction  than  pupils 
of  elementary  grade,  that  there  is  a  danger  in  perpetu- 
ating into  the  highest  classes  methods  of  teaching  and 
of  discipline  necessary  and  appropriate  for  the  lower 
classes.  The  criticism  is  a  fair  one,  and  it  has  been 
pointed  out  that  in  the  German  secondary  schools  the 
lack  of  sufficient  differentiation  creates  a  feehng  of 
irksomeness  in  the  two  highest  classes,  whose  pupils 
are  adults ;  but  it  should  be  said  in  justice  to  the  Ger- 
man system  that  this  difficulty  has  been  recognized, 
and  that  the  present  tendency  is  to  minimize  it  by  a 
kind  of  elective  system  in  the  work  of  these  classes.  ^ 
The  all-important  point  is  that  the  need  of  marked 
differentiation  be  recognized  by  those  in  authority, 
that  the  teachers  adapt  their  teaching  and  their  dis- 
ciplinary methods  to  the  changes  that  manifest  them- 

1  Friedrich  Paulsen  in  Monatschrift  fiir  hohere  Schulen,  IV,  65-73, 
and  Steinbart,  Monatschrift  fiir  hohere  Schulen,  V,  18-22.  Paulsen 
urges  :  1.  The  development  of  a  system  of  compensations  (equivalents) 
in  which  weaker  performances  in  one  branch  may  be  compensated 
for  by  preeminent  attainments  in  another  branch.  2.  An  independent 
original  essay  by  the  student  in  a  topic  of  his  own  choice.  3.  The  in- 
stitution of  free  study  days,  in  which  competent  students  are  permitted 
to  substitute  private  home  preparation  for  attendance  in  class  (a  su- 
preme mark  of  confidence  bestowed  on  serious  students),  and  finally 
the  creation  of  student  clubs  for  discussion  of  scientific  and  literary 
topics. 


1 66  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

selves  in  the  growing  adolescent.  To  triumph  over 
the  limitations  inherent  in  each  stage  of  the  pupil's 
school  life  is  the  essence  of  good  teaching ;  it  height- 
ens, for  instance,  the  effectiveness  of  good  history 
teaching  in  the  upper  classes  of  the  secondary  school 
if  the  same  teacher  to  whom  is  intrusted  this  advanced 
work  has  awakened  younger  pupils  to  the  first  in- 
terest in  his  subject  in  a  connected,  picturesque  form 
of  narrative.  Such  a  teacher  is  more  valuable  in  the 
initial  stages  of  the  subject  than  one  who  has  not  the 
larger  scholarly  resources  to  draw  upon,  and  the  same 
advantage  holds  for  the  teaching  of  literature,  of 
science. 

Is  it  then  not  altogether  strange  that  this  vital  ad- 
vantage is  lost  sight  of.''  The  majority  of  our  private 
schools  are  four-year  private  high  schools,  content  to 
rear  their  educational  scheme  upon  previous  completion 
of  the  public  elementary  school,  or  even  to  devote  a 
portion  of  their  first  year  to  the  proper  acquisition  of 
what  should  have  been  attained  in  the  elementary 
school ;  it  is  this  prevaiUng  type  of  school  that  receives 
its  entering  students  at  the  age  of  fourteen  or  fifteen, 
an  age  when  they  might  have  been  carrying  on  for 
some  years  studies  of  the  secondary  school,  and  is  in 
consequence  embarrassed,  like  the  public  high  school, 
by  an  overcrowded  curriculum,  for  which  four  years  do 
not  suffice. 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  I 67 

By  contrast,  a  properly  organized  private  school 
under  efficient  educational  management  that  commands 
the  confidence  and  cooperation  of  the  parents  ought 
accomplish,  can  accomplish,  in  distinctly  less  time,  a 
scheme  of  study  for  which  the  present  public  school 
system,  because  of  unavoidable  friction  at  the  points  of 
juncture,  requires  in  its  elementary  and  high  school 
twelve  years.  That  ten  years  are  quite  sufficient  for 
the  completion  of  this  work,  has  been  demonstrated  by 
a  number  of  private  schools ;  they  have,  in  fact,  found 
it  easily  possible  to  expand  their  educational  efforts 
beyond  the  minimum  acquirements  of  the  normal  twelve- 
year  course,  and  embrace  in  their  schedule  topics  of 
study,  not  absolutely  required,  but  distinctly  desirable. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  compassing  within  the  allotted 
time  not  only  the  subjects  stated  on  page  126  of  chapter 
I,  but  in  adding  to  them  the  proper  acquisition  of 
several  foreign  languages  (one  ancient  and  two  mod- 
ern, or  two  ancient  and  one  modern). 

The  economy  of  such  a  logically  devised  course  mani- 
fests itself  furthermore  in  this  respect,  that  it  gains  ample 
time  for  the  broader,  more  generous  aspects  of  teaching 
as  against  the  frequent  and  anxious  application  of  exami- 
nation tests.  The  best  teaching  can  dispense  to  a  large 
degree  with  the  formal  test ;  it  tests  constantly,  as  it 
unfolds  new  aspects  of  the  subject,  and  relates  them  to 
previous  experiences  of  the  pupil.     Furthermore,  with 


l68  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

its  continuous  course  of  ten  years,  it  is  in  a  favorable 
position  to  apply  various  departures  from  our  prevalent 
practice,  such  as  the  early  introduction  of  a  foreign 
language,  the  gradual  advance  through  a  given  subject 
in  preference  to  a  condensed  and  ill-digested  presenta- 
tion, the  interweaving  of  several  phases  of  the  same 
subject,  as  in  the  case  of  elementary  mathematics  (con- 
structional geometry  to  be  related  to  arithmetic,  and  to 
precede  by  several  years  the  beginnings  of  demonstrative 
geometry),  substantially  then  to  put  into  practice  edu- 
cational theory  that  has  met  with  acceptance  elsewhere. 
Nor  is  a  private  school  expected  to  meet  the  needs  of 
completely  divergent  groups  of  students  such  as  the 
public  school  embraces  in  its  constituency.  The  parent 
who  with  the  opportunity  for  free  tuition  of  his  child  in 
the  public  school,  elects  to  pay  for  his  instruction,  ex- 
pects to  give  him  the  opportunity  for  the  completion  of 
his  course,  and  he  desires  such  course  to  be  unified,  to 
lead  by  successive  and  related  stages  to  the  goal  which 
the  school  has  fixed  as  its  aim.  There  is  little  demand 
for  an  arrangement  of  the  course  of  study  which,  when- 
ever interrupted,  shall  afford  an  immediate  and  effective 
transition  into  some  phase  of  practical  life.  In  this 
respect  the  principal  of  a  private  school  enjoys  a  dis- 
tinct advantage ;  he  can  regard  his  succession  of  school 
years  as  a  whole ;  what  he  conceives  as  the  proper  dis- 
tribution and  utilization  of  time  and  subject  matter  he 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  1 69 

combines  into  his  program  of  studies.  The  construc- 
tive problem  is  in  consequence  relatively  simple ;  the 
complications  of  our  public  high  school  problems  are 
largely  due  to  the  variety  of  interests  among  those 
who  attend  and  to  the  expectation  that  all  of  these  inter- 
ests shall  be  recognized  in  the  development  of  the 
school  program.  It  involves  a  radical  difference  in  pro- 
cedure whether  a  subject  is  taught  as  an  element  in  a 
larger  scheme,  to  be  amplified  and  strengthened  as  the 
course  proceeds,  or  whether  our  present  teaching  of  it  is 
the  only  consideration  the  subject  is  to  receive  in  the 
course.  Thus  an  introductory  course  in  physics,  con- 
ceived as  preliminary  to  a  later  and  ampler  treatment, 
must  differ  fundamentally  from  one  that  is  to  represent 
all  the  knowledge  the  school  is  to  offer  on  this  subject. 
The  completion  of  the  ordinary  elementary  and 
secondary  program  within  ten  years  presupposes  a 
pupil  in  normal  health,  and  a  body  of  capable,  enthusi- 
astic teachers  under  competent  direction.  It  should  be 
added  with  all  possible  emphasis  that  the  carrying  out 
of  such  a  program  imposes  no  hardship  whatever  on  the 
pupil ;  it  leaves  ample  opportunity  for  all  legitimate 
forms  of  physical  exercise ;  it  does  mean  concentration 
on  a  distinct  purpose,  directness,  skill,  and  intense  de- 
votion to  duty  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  and  the 
capacity  to  stimulate  to  honest  intellectual  effort.  It 
also  presupposes  cordial  acceptance  of  the  principal's 


170  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

intentions  on  the  part  of  parents.  It  is  found  in  prac- 
tice that  a  strong  principal,  sure  of  his  aims,  wins 
vacillating  parents  to  his  point  of  view  ;  his  own  per- 
sonality and  that  of  his  loyal  teachers  will  gain  the  good 
will  and  interest  of  his  pupils  without  much  difficulty. 

When  President  Eliot,  in  his  Educational  Reform, 
pp.  15  i-i 76,  points  out  regretfully  the  vast  discrepancy 
in  mental  efficiency  between  our  pupils  and  German  and 
French  pupils  at  a  given  age,  the  explanation  is  found 
in  the  uncertainty  of  aim,  the  ineffectiveness  of  our 
teachers,  and  the  hesitation  to  postulate  seriousness  of 
application  as  a  legitimate  demand  upon  our  adolescent 
youth.  It  is  this  seriousness  of  purpose,  this  insistence 
on  specific  performance  which  we  must  make  the 
dominant  note  of  our  school  system,  if  as  a  nation  we 
do  not  wish  to  be  eliminated  from  a  position  which  is 
within  our  reach ;  as  against  the  doctrine  that  we  must 
at  all  hazards  ease  the  paths  of  our  young  people  on 
the  plane  of  least  effort,  we  must  proclaim  the  doctrine 
that  substantial  attainment  cannot  be  realized  without 
substantial  application ;  in  the  professions  and  in  the 
world  of  affairs  the  path  to  success  is  a  thorny  one,  and 
it  is  an  injustice  to  our  youth  to  conceal  from  their  minds 
the  severity  of  the  struggle.^ 

1  F.  Ware,  Educational  Foundations  of  Trade  and  Industry.  London, 
1901,  p.  98  ff.  ;  also  Sadler,  Unrest  in  Secondary  Education,  Eng- 
lish Special  Reports,  vol.  9,  39  ff. 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  171 

They  are  enemies  to  the  well-being  of  the  growing 
generation  who  urge  the  substitution  for  a  robust  and 
invigorating  discipline,  of  an  easy,  almost  unconscious 
acquisition  of  information.  A  vigorous  nation  needs  a 
vigorous  progeny ;  intellectual  flabbiness  invites  discom- 
fiture, defeat.  It  is  a  common  experience  of  the  students 
in  our  professional  schools,  that  until  they  enter  them, 
they  hardly  realize  what  intense  and  concentrated 
application  means;  they  are  confronted  with  demands 
for  which  their  previous  dilettantism  in  study  has  not 
properly  prepared  them. 

It  is  well  for  the  private  schools  of  every  type  to 
weigh  with  caution  the  effect  on  their  standing  as 
secondary  schools  of  the  multifarious  duties  they  have 
been  assuming  in  loco  parentis.  Valuable  as  are  these 
duties,  shall  they  encroach  upon  the  position  their 
schools  have  always  claimed  as  educational  factors  in 
the  community.?  It  has  been  argued  recently  and  in 
various  quarters  that  the  private  day  and  boarding 
school  and  the  incorporated  academy,  despite  their 
distinctive  opportunities,  are  not  developing  in  their 
best  students  as  high  qualifications  on  the  intellectual 
side  as  the  public  high  school  does;  the  attainments  of 
their  respective  graduates  in  their  college  careers  seem 
to  confirm  this  criticism. 

Harvard  College  has  been  gathering  for  its  own 
guidance  some  very  significant  statistics  in  this  respect. 


172  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

Its  entering  classes  are  largely  recruited  from  the  pri- 
vate preparatory  schools  and  academies  (Exeter,  An- 
dover,  Groton,  St.  Mark,  etc.),  schools  whose  professed 
object  is  to  equip  their  students  effectively  for  college 
entrance.  From  the  public  high  schools  of  the  country 
whose  curricula  do  not  closely  articulate  with  its  require- 
ments, it  receives  but  a  relatively  small  percentage  of  its 
students.  But  of  distinctions  attained  during  the  col- 
lege course,  the  small  body  of  public  high  school 
students  carry  off  an  unusually  large  proportion.  The 
startling  discrepancy  is  not  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  public  school  graduates  who  have  won  entrance 
are  a  picked  body  who  have  encountered  and  success- 
fully overcome  obstacles  on  their  path  into  college, 
who  appreciate  the  value  of  intense  application  more 
than  the  graduates  from  the  private  schools ;  it  is  inter- 
preted by  Harvard  College  to  mean  that  because  of 
the  distractions  inherent  in  the  present  arrangements 
of  the  private  schools,  these  are  not  as  likely  to  foster 
scholarly  tastes  and  powers  as  they  might  do.  Hence 
Harvard  has  concluded  to  extend  its  opportunities  by  a 
new  system  of  combined  examination  test  and  control 
of  school  records  to  as  many  high  schools  as  possible, 
in  order  to  secure  what  a  college  needs  above  all,  —  a 
large  body  of  earnest,  intellectually  inclined  students. 

There  has  not  been  in  recent  years  a  more  specific 
arraignment  of   our  private  schools  and  academies ;  it 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  1 73 

confirms  our  suspicion  that  the  majority  of  the  schools 
have  shghted  the  scholarly  impulses  in  their  efforts  for 
the  upbuilding  of  character.  It  is  a  misconception  to 
substitute  one  for  the  other ;  they  represent  totally  dif- 
ferent methods  of  educational  procedure,  and  need  not 
in  any  way  conflict  in  time  or  tendency.  Any  secondary 
school,  public  or  private,  should  presuppose  the  active 
desire  of  its  attending  students  to  exert  themselves 
intellectually ;  it  cannot  descend  to  become  the  dispenser 
of  needful  information  to  a  recalcitrant  student  body 
without  nullifying  the  reason  for  its  existence. 

Between  the  private  and  the  pubhc  high  school  there 
is  no  occasion  for  antagonism ;  ^  their  aims  are  avowedly 
similar;  the  public  will  eventually  judge  which  is  produc- 
tive of  the  better  results.  If  the  smaller  classes  of  the 
private  school,  the  educational  convictions  of  the  teachers, 
and  the  relative  freedom  in  procedure,  result  in  attainments 
that  the  large  public  school,  with  its  other  compensating 
advantages,  does  not  realize,  the  superintendents  of  the 
public  system  will  not  fail  to  suggest  the  changes  that 
will  remove  the  difficulties,  and  the  taxpayers  will  have 
to  indicate  their  willingness  or  reluctance  to  cooperate. 

1  The  antagonism  against  the  public  high  schools  which  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  utterances  of  English  headmasters  who  conduct  private 
school  enterprises  is  unknown  in  this  country ;  we  have  an  open  com- 
petition, with  a  generous  recognition  of  the  distinctive  merits  of  each 
party  ;  he  who  deserves  to  win,  let  him  win  ! 


174  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

In  a  number  of  directions  the  greater  flexibility  of  the 
private  school  could  influence  fruitfully  the  public  school 
system  ;  it  has  been  responsible  for  the  more  discreet 
application  of  administrative  measures,  for  reforms  in 
methods  of  promotion  and  in  a  wiser  adjustment  to  indi- 
vidual requirements.  From  a  financial  point  of  view, 
too,  the  private  high  school  contributes  lessons  that  the 
public  school  system  cannot  afford  to  ignore ;  they  bear 
upon  the  effectiveness  of  both  systems  as  educational 
agents.  It  may  be  assumed  that  the  well-to-do  support- 
ers of  private  schools  who  are  already  taxpayers 
are  not  overanxious  to  squander  their  resources ;  they 
expect  a  full  equivalent  for  their  outlay,  and  whilst  they 
approve  of  a  fair  profit  to  the  managers  of  private  school 
enterprises  in  return  for  the  exercise  of  their  talents 
and  for  the  risks  incurred,  they  feel  warranted  in 
demanding  superior  provision  in  teachers  and  teaching 
equipment. 

An  interesting  tabulation  has  recently  been  made  by 
the  head  of  one  of  the  largest  private  day  schools  in 
the  country,  based  upon  confidential  information  from 
heads  of  similar  schools;^  the  object  was  to  determine 
the  percentage  of  expenditure  devoted  to  the  teaching 
corps,  but  its  data  may  furnish  suggestions  of  the  actual 

1  These  statistics  have  been  further  developed  by  the  author ;  the 
generous  response  to  his  inquiries,  furnished  by  the  principals  of  many 
private  day  schools;  has  proved  exceedingly  helpful. 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 75 

cost  of  instruction  of  the  individual  pupil,  in  which  must 
be  included  the  pro  rata  expense  of  general  school 
maintenance  (this  would  involve  heat,  light,  janitorial 
attendance,  and  either  rent  on  building  or  interest  on 
capitalization  and  contribution  to  the  sinking  fund). 

In  no  case  did  the  entire  outlay  for  salaries  and  general 
maintenance  fall  below  eighty  per  cent  of  the  tuition 
fees  received ;  in  several  cases  it  amounted  to  eighty-five 
per  cent.  We  may  omit  from  consideration  the  cases 
of  several  religious  or  semi-religious  school  organizations 
in  which  the  school  income  stands  in  no  specific  relation 
to  the  salary  list,  special  appropriations  being  available 
to  meet  all  deficits.  The  maximum  of  profits  to  the 
head  of  the  school  was  twenty  per  cent,  in  most  cases 
below  that  figure.  The  average  income  from  tuition 
fees  per  pupil  was  a  little  above  ^150  per  annum,  of 
which,  therefore,  at  least  eighty  per  cent  was  spent  to 
meet  cost  of  instruction.  The  tabulation,  furthermore, 
shows  that  the  actual  expenditure  on  teachers'  salaries 
represents  from  thirty-eight  to  eighty-eight  per  cent  of 
the  tuition  fee. 

The  reports  come  from  fourteen  prominent  day  schools,  whose 
charges  of  tuition  range  from  $100  to  $400  per  annum  ;  none  of  the 
higher  priced  schools  charging  above  $400  were  included :  — 
Of  its  income  School  A  spends  38  per  cent  on  teachers'  salaries. 
School  B  40  per  cent 

School  C  41  per  cent 

School  D  40  per  cent 


176  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

Of  its  income  School  E  spends  50  per  cent  on  teachers'  salaries. 

School  F  56  per  cent 

School  G  59  per  cent 

School  H  68  per  cent 

School  I  68  per  cent 

School  J  71  per  cent 

School  K  73  per  cent 

School  L  79  per  cent 

School  M  83!^  per  cent 

School  N  88  per  cent 

In  schools  A  to  K  the  heavy  charges  for  general  maintenance 
(rent,  etc.)  absorb  much  of  each  schoors  income  ;  in  schools  L  to  N 
an  original  endowment  removes  the  item  of  rent  and  reduces  the 
cost  of  maintenance. 

An  investigation  of  the  number  of  pupils  in  attendance  at  most  of 
these  schools  and  of  the  number  of  teachers  employed  showed  that 
there  is  one  teacher  to  twelve  pupils  (an  average  that  approximates 
closely  to  President  Eliot's  statement  in  More  Money  for  the  Public 
Schools,  p.  17,  that  "private  schools  not  infrequently  provide  a 
teacher  for  every  eight  or  ten  pupils." 

School  B,  with  a  large  income  and  the  highest  average  of  tuition 
fees  of  all  the  schools  under  consideration,  forms  a  marked  exception ; 
its  low  percentage  of  outlay  for  teachers'  salaries  is  partially  due  to 
the  fact  that  its  classes  are  too  large. 

A  closer  study  of  this  confidential  information  reveals 
the  further  fact  that  the  private  school  does  not  tend, 
like  the  public  high  school,  to  a  disproportionate  outlay 
for  buildings  and  outfit  and  a  modest  expenditure  for 
teachers'  salaries  ;  the  tendency  is  rather  the  reverse, 
except  where  specific  gifts  have  been  made  to  a  school 
for  the  erection  of  specific  buildings.     As  between  the 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  1 77 

two  tendencies,  that  of  the  private  school  is  distinctly 
the  sounder  one  ;  we  may  approve  of  the  feeling  of 
communal  pride  that  regards  the  high  school  building 
as  a  civic  center ;  brick  and  mortar,  however,  assembly 
halls  and  laboratories  are  but  external  manifestations  of 
a  civic  spirit  whose  real  import  should  be  disclosed  in 
the  quality  of  the  men  and  women  employed  to  direct 
the  functions  of  the  schools.  Our  communities  must 
be  trained  to  recognize  that  the  erection  of  a  stately 
building  furnishes  an  empty  shell  merely ;  it  is  in  the 
increasing  effectiveness  of  what  is  offered  within  its 
walls  that  its  permanent  value  abides.  The  most  luxu- 
rious transatlantic  steamer  is  a  dismal  failure  unless  it 
is  officered  by  men  of  the  greatest  efficiency. 

The  very  existence  of  the  private  schools  acts  as  a 
ferment  in  the  development  of  public  opinion.  The 
whole  question  of  the  cost  of  public  high  school  educa- 
tion must  be  subjected  to  revision;  the  extravagant  ex- 
penditure of  moneys  for  buildings  and  the  subsequent 
parsimony  in  salaries,  which  is  most  striking  in  smaller 
communities,  is  a  notable  example  of  the  wastefulness 
in  our  public  life.^  It  may  be  assumed  that  the  admin- 
istrators of  private  schools  are  not  recklessly  extrava- 
gant ;  they  incur  the  greater  outlay  in  teachers'  salaries 
because  they  consider  it  wise  and  necessary. 

1  Eliot,  More  Money  for  the  Public  Schools,  N.Y.,  1904.     Button  and 
Snedden,  Acfmintsiraiion  of  Public  Educatioti,  p.  171,  Macmillan  Co.,  1908. 
N 


178  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

The  private  school  is  not  only  compelled  in  its  own 
behalf  to  provide  a  larger  number  of  teachers  for  the 
same  number  of  pupils,  but  a  more  expensive  kind  of 
teacher ;  in  boys'  schools  male  teachers  predominate  as 
a  matter  of  course,  in  mixed  private  schools  the  teach- 
ers are  almost  evenly  divided  as  to  sex,  and  even  in 
girls'  private  schools  the  male  teacher  is  not  unknown. 

How,  then,  are  we  to  interpret  the  existing  conditions 
in  the  public  high  schools  ?  Are  we  to  assume  that  for 
the  instruction  of  the  large  classes  women  are  more  de- 
sirable than  men  ?  It  is  hardly  likely  that  any  one 
would  make  this  claim.  A  survey  of  the  situation  leads 
to  this  conclusion,  that  under  the  existing  conditions  of 
meager  salaries,  uncertain  tenure,  lack  of  appreciation 
of  professional  growth,  it  is  easier  to  secure  women 
than  men  as  teachers.^  The  aim  of  the  school  boards 
being  to  make  their  salary  budget  as  low  as  possible, 
competent,  energetic  young  men  seek  avenues  of  activ- 
ity in  which  positions  of  responsibility  are  not  awarded 
to  the  lowest  bidder.  The  fact  that  women  are  avail- 
able for  high  school  positions  at  lower  figures  deter- 
mines their  preponderance  in  the  school  system ;  this, 
and  no  other  consideration,  prevails  with  school  boards, 
however  strenuously  they  maintain  the  contrary .^ 

1  The  whole  question  of  salaries,  tenure  and  pension  of  public 
school  teachers  has  been  treated  in  the  Report  of  a  Committee  on  these 
subjects,  made  July,  1905,  to  the  National  Educational  Association. 

*  The  Germans,  prompted  by  the  same  motives  of  economy  that 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 79 

It  is  significant  that  whenever  the  need  of  radical  im- 
prove mcnt  in  a  school  system  is  recognized,  there  is  a  call 
for  a  material  increase  of  the  school  budget,  so  that  addi- 
tional male  teachers  of  ability  may  be  drawn  into  the 
system.  It  may  be  freely  admitted  that  for  the  same 
low  salary  a  better  woman  than  male  teacher  may  be 
secured ;  the  deliberate  indifference  of  school  boards  to 
economic  conditions,  especially  to  the  increased  cost  of 
family  maintenance,  which  affects  the  workman  and  the 
teacher  alike,  has  driven  promising  young  men  into 
other  fields  of  activity. 

Without  disparagement  of  the  excellent  qualities  of 
many  women  teachers,  it  cannot  be  said  too  emphati- 
cally that,  if  our  high  school  system  is  to  be  of  real 
value  to  the  community,  we  cannot  dispense  with  the 
male  teacher  in  our  schools.  We  need  a  large  number 
of  capable  young  men  as  permanent  members  of  the 
profession,  and  the  community  must  be  educated  to  a 
point  where  it  will  make  their  positions  attractive  by 

prevail  elsewhere,  have  lately  been  considering  the  appointment  of 
larger  numbers  of  women  teachers;  they  are,  however,  questioning 
the  economical  advantage  in  the  face  of  their  statistics  on  regularity  of 
attendance.  According  to  the  Pddagoghche  Zeitting  of  licriin,  Dec.  9, 
1909  (in  Report  Comm.  of  Education,  for  1910,  1, 471),  the  percentage  of 
teachers  on  sick  leave  ran  thus  :  men  teachers,  26.94,  women  teachers, 
52.11,  special  women  tcachens,  42.97.  In  Magdeburg,  similarly,  the 
per  cent  of  absence  on  account  of  sickness  among  the  men  was  26.9, 
among  the  women,  41.3. 


l8o  THE    AMERICAN   SECOND,\RY    SCHOOL 

liberal  salaries  and  prospects  of  permanent  appointment. 
It  cannot  be  repeated  too  frequently  that  the  contraction 
or  abandonment  of  a  high  school  is  better  than  its  con- 
tinuance under  conditions  of  hopeless  incompetency. 
In  this  matter  of  the  predominance  of  the  woman 
teacher  in  our  school  system  we  are  face  to  face  with  a 
situation,  the  seriousness  of  which  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated. 

If  existing  conditions  are  allowed  to  continue,  and 
no  adequate  remuneration  is  offered  to  increase  the 
number  of  male  teachers,  we  shall  presently  have 
a  generation  of  high  school  pupils  who  have  not 
known  the  influence  of  male  teachers.  Excepting  in 
the  large  cities,  our  high  school  teachers  are  women  ; 
and  even  the  male  principal  who  has  been  in  charge  of 
the  arrangement  of  studies  in  the  curriculum,  is  in 
many  communities  being  replaced  by  a  female  head. 
The  consequences  of  this  lack  of  balance  have  been 
clearly  recognized  by  expert  observers  from  other  coun- 
tries ;  ^  they  are  reflected  in  the  want  of  incisiveness  in 

1  Professor  H.  E.  Armstrong  (Rep.  of  Mosely  Comm.,  p.  13,  1903)  is 
particularly  strong  in  expressions  of  disapproval. 

Sarah  A.  Burstall,  English  High  Schools  for  Girls  (Longmans,  p.  60, 
1907) :  "  It  should  be  frankly  recognized  that  women  cannot  do  as 
much  work  as  men,  a  fact  which  is  some  justification  for  paying  them 
at  a  lower  rate,  and  that  they  need  more  allowance  in  the  matter  of 
absence  due  to  illness."  Contrast  with  this  statement  the  utterances 
in  English  Special  Reports,  X,  410  ff. 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  l8l 

our  high  school  work.  It  is  a  fatal  lack  of  insight  to 
close  our  eyes  to  our  defective  educational  policy ;  we 
are  steadily  undermining  the  opportunities  in  which  we 
profess  to  excel.  Our  school  courses  do  not  appeal 
to  our  pupils,  because  they  do  not  serve  the  ends  antici- 
pated. 

If  the  high  school  teacher  were  only  the  mediator 
between  the  receptive  youthful  mind  and  the  sub- 
ject that  is  to  be  grasped,  it  might  matter  but  little 
whether  the  mediator  were  a  man  or  a  woman,  but 
more  is  involved,  the  shaping  of  character,  the  evolution 
of  preferences  as  to  a  study,  often  the  choice  of  voca- 
tion. The  relation  of  a  boy  to  a  female  teacher  may 
be  one  of  instinctive  courtesy,  he  may  accept  her  criti- 
cism of  his  scholastic  attainments,  may  even  submit 
ostensibly  to  her  disciplinary  authority,  but  he  does  not 
seek  her  advice  in  the  difficulties  incidental  to  adoles- 
cence. He  wants  at  times  the  judgment,  the  experience, 
of  one  of  his  own  sex ;  the  daily  bearing,  the  outlook 
upon  life  of  the  man,  gives  direction  to  the  boy's  prefer- 
ences ;  the  woman  teacher  will  never  be  consulted  by 
him  as  a  guide  in  the  practical  conduct  of  life.  On  this 
point  the  most  sensible  women  teachers  may  be  accepted 
as  witnesses ;  they  know  that  their  control  of  older  boys 
is  at  its  best  limited  to  the  performances  of  the  class- 
room, and  they  avoid,  as  a  rule,  all  moralizing  with  the 
boys,  because   they   are   conscious   of   its   futility.     A 


l82  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

special  educational  commission  in  Chicago,  reporting  in 
1898,  recommended  the  appointment  of  a  larger  number 
of  male  teachers  in  the  higher  grades  of  the  elementary 
schools,  even  at  the  cost  of  higher  salaries ;  they  explic- 
itly attributed  the  ominous  fact  of  the  small  number  of 
boys  in  the  secondary  schools  to  the  predominance  of 
women  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools. 

Studies  and  life  are  separated  by  a  great  gulf  if  the 
school  furnishes  no  one  to  establish  the  connection 
between  the  two.  Even  mothers  who  have  the  firmest 
hold  upon  the  affections  of  their  boys  realize  that  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  a  certain  reticence  sets  in,  and 
that  at  this  period  the  influence  of  the  father  as  the 
counselor,  the  confidential  friend,  of  his  son  must  reveal 
itself.  The  success  of  the  best  type  of  private  school 
rests  upon  the  recognition  of  these  conditions ;  it  is  for 
the  men  teachers  to  win  the  confidence  of  their  boy 
pupils;  in  their  lives  the  teachers  are  expected  to  embody 
certain  fundamental  principles  of  conduct  which  serve 
as  guides  in  the  crises  of  adolescent  life ;  their  judg- 
ment, knowledge,  and  sympathy  may  contribute  to  a 
happy  issue.  Contact  with  a  virile  spirit  is  needed  by 
the  healthy,  turbulent  boy  ;  sturdiness  and  vigor  develop 
from  contemplation  of  similar  qualities ;  and  the  with- 
drawal of  boys  from  our  high  schools  is  due  in  Umited 
degree  only  to  the  attractions  of  business  ;  their  appar- 
ent incapacity  to  measure  up  to  the  required  standard 


THE   PRIVATE   SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 83 

results  quite  frequently  from  unreadiness  to  continue 
under  feminine  control. 

The  value  of  our  women  teachers  inheres  in  their 
essential  womanliness ;  if  their  teaching  is  to  reflect  a 
sexless  conception  of  their  duties,  the  major  part  of  its 
merit  disappears.  We  all  concede  that  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  the  elementary  school  a  woman's  characteristic 
endowment  makes  her  a  particularly  efficient  teacher. 
She  combines  patience  with  capacity  for  detail,  but  it  is 
preposterous  to  expect  the  whole  adolescent  school 
population,  male  and  female,  to  attain  to  an  efficient 
maturity  under  a  system  of  education  largely  feminine. 
For  both  boys  and  girls  the  influence  of  a  number  of 
competent  male  instructors  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance. 

This  view  of  the  whole  question  is  vital,  as  the 
great  majority  of  our  schools  are  coeducational. 
Experience  has  shown  that  girls  rehsh  thoroughly 
the  instruction  by  male  teachers ;  they  have  the  feeling 
that  if  they  meet  the  demands  of  the  male  teacher  as 
well  as  the  boys  do,  they  demonstrate  their  capacity  more 
obviously  than  if  taught  by  one  of  their  own  sex.  But 
even  in  schools  exclusively  devoted  to  the  education  of 
girls,  it  would  be  well  to  have  a  certain  quota  of  male 
teachers  in  the  middle  and  upper  classes ;  aside  from 
the  influence  on  the  girls,  the  interweaving  of  the  mas- 
culine and  feminine  point  of  view  is  of  advantage  to  the 


184  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

teaching  body  itself,  assuming,  of  course,  that  the 
teachers  of  each  sex  are  representative,  the  men  not 
weak  types  of  the  profession,  the  women  not  aggres- 
sively masculine. 

However  the  pronounced  partisans  may  object  to  the 
term  feminization  in  education,  this  undesirable  tendency 
exists,  and  the  country  at  large  is  reaping  the  reward  of 
its  shortsightedness,  its  mistaken  parsimony.  Feminiza- 
tion in  education  reveals  itself  not  merely  in  the  preva- 
lence of  the  female  teacher;  the  weak  and  colorless 
male  teacher  who  continues  in  this  vocation  despite 
inadequate  salary,  contributes  no  virile  counter-influence. 
It  is  in  defiance  of  all  the  dictates  of  common  sense  to 
accept  as  inevitable  the  gradual  elimination  of  the  com- 
petent, vigorous  male  teacher,  because,  forsooth,  an 
approximate  equivalent  can  be  obtained  at  a  lower  rate. 

Our  educational  literature  furnishes  an  index  to  our 
present-day  trend;  consult  educational  textbooks,  read 
educational  addresses  ;  you  will  find  advice,  remonstrance, 
professional  guidance,  addressed  as  a  matter  of  course 
to  the  woman  teacher ;  it  has  become  a  national  habit  to 
think  thus,  and  our  lecturers  and  writers  seem  not  to  feel 
the  incongruity  of  the  situation. 

Ours  is  actually  a  nation,  ninety  per  cent  of  whose 
adolescents  at  least  have  come  to  regard  knowledge  and 
culture  as  an  essentially  feminine  accomplishment,  be- 
cause strong  men  dc  not  seem  available  or  inclined  to 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  185 

propagate  it.^  The  major  part  of  the  instruction  is  in 
the  hands  of  women,  the  attendance  in  the  pubHc  high 
schools  shows  a  higher  percentage  of  girls  than  boys, 
energetic  male  teachers  are  few ;  under  these  circum- 
stances is  it  likely  that  the  characteristic  note  of  the 
high  school  will  be  absorbing  energy,  enlisting  to  the 
utmost  the  participation  of  all  concerned,  or  will  it  be 
attuned  to  the  measure  of  its  prevailing  constituency  ?  ^ 
This  influence  is  palpably  reflected  in  our  high  schools, 
in  the  character  of  their  work,  the  discipline  of  the 
school,  the  attitude  of  the  student  body ;  it  would  be 
obviously  an  injustice  to  urge  an  insistence  on  a  mascu- 
line type,  where  teacher  and  taught  are  dominantly 
feminine,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  minority 
acquiesce  in  standards  of  gentler  procedure. 

And  the  logic  of  our  system  moves  one  step  farther ; 
with  the  coeducational  school  as  the  dominant  public 
school  type,  its  measure  of  performance  has  fixed  the 
standard.  "  The  methods  of  the  recitation  have  under- 
gone an  unconscious  evolution  to  adapt  them  to  the  girl 
type."^     Can  the  boys'  high  school  undertake  to  prove 

1  De  Garmo,  Interest  and  Education,  p.  99,  Macmillan,  1908. 

^HoUister,  High  School  Administration,  chap.  VIII,  "  Adolescence 
and  Coeducation."  Nightingale,  A.  F., "  The  Ratio  of  Men  to  Women 
in  the  High  Schools  of  the  United  States,"  School  Revieio,  4,  86.  But- 
ton and  Snedden,  Administration  of  Public  Education  in  United  States, 
pp.  369-371,  and  bibliography,  p.  384. 

9  J.  E.  Armstrong,  School  Review,  1910,  p.  339 


1 86  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

that  in  the  given  time  and  under  more  potent  teaching 
more  positive  attainments  might  be  secured  ?  That 
would  overthrow  the  generally  admitted  value  of  the 
coeducational  scheme,  whose  ideals  seem  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  the  community,  and  so  the  boys'  high  school 
accepts  the  line  of  lesser  resistance,  and  ambles  along  at 
the  gentle  gait  of  its  associates,  whilst  the  students  fritter 
away  in  "  idleness  of  a  most  engrossing  kind  "  energies 
that  at  this  adolescent  stage  should  be  directed,  stim- 
ulated to  the  full.  The  failure  to  rouse  our  young  men 
to  their  actual  capacity  for  sustained  effort  constitutes 
the  severest  indictment  of  our  high  school  system.  Ed- 
ucation of  the  community  to  a  definite  realization  of  this 
fact  is  a  duty  that  devolves  upon  our  educational  experts  ; 
if  once  the  economy  of  effectiveness  is  demonstrated, 
they  will  find  the  public  ready  to  cooperate,  to  make  the 
larger  sacrifice. 

The  force  of  example  and  of  uncompromising  convic- 
tion counts  above  all  else  with  the  American  public ;  let 
it  be  clearly  recognized  that  efficient  teaching  is  impos- 
sible unless  we  offer  inducements  that  will  prolong  the 
continuance  of  the  teachers  in  the  teaching  field  and 
bring  to  the  service  of  the  school  the  results  of  their  intel- 
lectual progress  and  their  growth  in  technique,  and  we 
shall  have  taken  a  long  step  toward  greater  efficiency.^ 

'  A  sad  picture  of  the  demoralization  that  has  affected  bodies  of 
teachers  is  disclosed  by  Jane  Addams  in  her  Twenty  Years  in  Hull  House. 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL  1 87 

The  advocates  of  coeducation  are  at  the  present 
moment  the  most  serious  foes  of  educational  progress. 
Those  who  recognize  the  need  of  educational  advance 
must  be  prepared  to  accept  the  obloquy  that  arises 
from  unreasoning  partisanship  ;  among  them  are  to  be 
found,  fortunately,  a  number  of  admirable  college-bred 
women,  who  realize  that  studies  appropriate  to  young 
men  may  not  necessarily  prove  best  for  young  women.  ^ 

No  one  denies  the  practical  value  in  the  past  of  the 
adoption  of  the  coeducational  scheme  in  our  schools. 
Sparsely  settled  communities  throughout  the  land  offered 
such  educational  opportunities  as  their  slender  resources 
permitted  to  both  sexes  alike  ;  ^  it  was  not  the  question 
whether  this  was  most  beneficial  to  each  of  the  sexes ; 
the  financial  stress  determined  the  alternative  —  this  or 
nothing.  Economic  considerations,  and  only  these,  ini- 
tiated the    coeducational   school.      The   argumentation 

Referring  to  her  experiences  as  a  member  of  the  Chicago  School 
Board,  she  records  the  objections  of  the  teachers  to  examinations  in- 
tended to  test  their  intellectual  growth  ;  technique,  and  not  increasing 
culture  attainment,  they  claimed,  was  to  determine  promotion,  as  though 
intellectual  stagnation  could  be  counteracted  by  routine  dexterity. 

1  Sachs,  J.,  "  Coeducation  in  the  United  States,"  Educational  Review, 
33,  298. 

Sachs,  J.,  "  Intellectual  Reactions  of  Coeducation,"  Eduational  Re- 
view, 35,  466. 

2  Brown,  E.  E.,  "  The  Making  of  our  Middle  Schools,"  vide  Index 
under  Coeducation,  527.  Smith,  Anna  T.,  "  Coeducation  in  the  Schools 
and  Colleges  of  the  United  States."  Report  Commissioner  of  Education, 
1903, 1,  1047  ;  1910, 1, 126-136. 


1 88  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

that  what  was  of  necessity  done,  was  also  the  ideal  thing 
to  do,  was  an  afterthought ;  it  is  not  the  only  occasion 
in  the  history  of  peoples  when  the  exigencies  of  a  situa- 
tion have  been  invested  with  the  dignity  of  a  leading 
principle.  We  are  all  prepared  to  admit  that  the  co- 
educational idea  has  been  on  the  whole  successful  in  the 
elementary  school ;  in  the  high  school  it  has  not  been 
conducive  to  the  best  results,  and  its  substantial  value 
to  both  sexes  in  the  coeducational  college  is  open  to 
grave  doubts  for  a  variety  of  reasons  that  have  not  yet 
received  impartial  consideration. 

To  the  high  school  age  in  particular  applies  Professor 
J.  F.  Brown's  statement  {The  American  High  School,  p. 
387)  :  "  Belief  in  the  wisdom  of  coeducation  is  not  nearly 
so  universal  as  its  prevalence."  Equal  opportunity  has 
become  an  established  fact  in  the  American  high  school ; 
there  can  be  no  retrograde  movement  in  this  respect. 
Are  we  not  ready  for  the  consideration  of  the  next 
step  in  advance.''  Does  equality  of  opportunity  involve 
identity  of  procedure  .''  ^  That  there  is  a  certain  crudity 
in  the  requirement  of  identical  pursuit  and  identical  rate 
of  advance,  is  clear  from  the  divergent  remedies  that 
have  been  tried  in  various  important  centers.     Compare 

1  Sir  Philip  Magnus,  Educatio7ial  Aims  and  Efforts,  Longmans,  1910, 
42-47,  and  p.  180 :  "  The  true  theory  of  women's  education  must  be 
founded  on  the  belief  that  each  sex  is  both  inferior  and  superior  to  the 
other,  but  in  different  respects." 


THE    PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  1 89 

the  scheme  of  partial  segregation  in  the  recitation 
periods  of  the  Englewood  High  School^  (where  the 
coeducational  scheme  formerly  prevailed)  with  the 
Cleveland  plan  of  segregating  the  two  sexes,  for  valid 
reasons  evidently,  during  the  study  periods  (Report 
Commissioner  of  Education,  1910,  p.  120);  both  schemes 
encountered  at  the  outset  serious  opposition  from  the 
adherents  of  the  traditional  arrangement,  but  both  have 
conquered  their  way  to  recognition.  Is  it  in  one  or  both 
directions  that  progress  lies  ?  A  recent  experiment,  re- 
corded in  School  Science  and  Mathematics,  January, 
191 1,  p.  I,  on  the  "Teaching  of  Physics  in  Segregated 
Classes,"  is  but  one  of  numerous  evidences  that,  if  the 
financial  stress  disappears,  the  school  can  concentrate  it- 
self for  each  sex  advantageously  upon  those  lines  of 
thought  that  appeal  naturally  and  effectively  to  it. 

Just  what  effect  the  introduction  of  vocational  train- 
ing into  the  high  schools  will  have  upon  this  question, 
remains  to  be  seen ;  but  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  the 
creation  of  separate  schools  or  separate  departments 
will  suggest  a  complete  reconsideration  of  the  method 
of  subject  presentation  in  the  light  of  life  interests. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  specific  province  in  which 
the  male  and  female  teacher  respectively  are  likely  to 
excel,  sweeping  generalizations   are  undesirable;   it   is 

1  Armstrong,  "  Limited  Segregation,"  in  School  Review,  14,  726  and 
18,  339  ff. 


1 90  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

injudicious  to  predicate  for  the  women  teachers  in  high 
school  work  special  ability  on  the  literary  side,  in  the 
teaching  of  English  and  foreign  languages,  and  to  re- 
serve for  them  these  subjects,  whilst  we  make  the 
teaching  of  history  and  civics,  of  mathematics,  of  natu- 
ral science,  the  peculiar  domain  of  men. 

Superintendents  and  principals  can  point  out  many 
individual  instances  in  which  women  have  shown  them- 
selves exceptionally  good  teachers  of  mathematics, 
specially  strong  in  estabhshing  correct  fundamental 
concepts  of  science ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  cultural 
phases  that  may  be  suggested  in  the  teaching  of  lit- 
erature and  language  make  a  strong  appeal  to  many 
men,  and  it  would  simply  emphasize  existing  prejudices 
to  establish  an  arbitrary  Une  of  demarcation  in  the 
assignment  of  subjects.  The  decision  must  be  based 
in  every  case  on  the  teacher's  special  gifts ;  it  is  clear 
that  something  more  than  book  learning  must  determine 
his  proficiency.  To  attempt  the  teaching  of  history  and 
civics  as  a  collection  of  facts,  a  mere  record,  is  of  course 
to  deprive  the  subject  of  its  vitalizing  force,  of  its  signifi- 
cance to  the  future  citizen  of  the  world ;  the  teacher, 
whatever  may  have  been  contributed  by  personal  expe- 
rience, must  himself  be  a  "political  being," 

In  like  manner  there  are  other  than  aesthetic  and 
emotional  appreciations  to  be  won  from  the  teaching 
of  the  vernacular  and  other  literatures,  and  it  is  unwise 


THE   PRIVATE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL  I9I 

to  eliminate  the  masculine  point  of  view ;  the  genius  of 
each  race,  and  it  is  this  that  is  revealed  to  us  in  its 
literary  documents,  includes  a  wide  range  of  human 
interests,  that  make  their  spiritual  appeal  to  men  and 
women  alike.  The  dominant  interest,  the  capacity  to 
interpret  to  the  young,  should  determine  the  assign- 
ment of  a  subject  to  a  teacher,  regardless  of  sex. 


CHAPTER   III 
The  Educational  Policy  of  the  Secondary  School 

Of  the  two  purposes  which  Lord  Kelvin  ^  claims  for 
the  higher  education  —  first,  to  enable  the  student  to 
earn  a  livelihood,  and  second,  to  make  life  worth  living 
—  the  former  relates  studies  to  their  practical  bearing, 
the  latter  represents  the  ideal  aim,  and  concerns  itself 
less  with  the  direct  application  of  studies  to  successful 
aptitudes  than  with  the  acquisition  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  power — the  special  distinction  of  the  educated 
man.  The  contrast  and  the  relationship  are  happily 
expressed  by  Mr.  C.  E.  Rugh  in  his  prize  essay,  "  Moral 
Training  in  the  Public  Schools,"  Ginn  &  Co.,  1907,  p. 
23:  "Making  a  living  is  one  of  the  means  of  living  a 
life.  The  sin  of  the  age  has  been  in  making  the  means 
an  end,  and  thus  losing  both." 

It  is  the  avowed  intention  of  our  secondary  schools 
to  compass  both  ends ;  but  we  are  not  agreed  which  of 
the  two  purposes  shall  receive  the  greater  visible  em- 
phasis. Shape  your  teaching,  say  some,  so  that  the 
utilitarian  goal  is  not  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of ;  how 
to  secure  the  practical  availability  of  all   information 

1  De  Garmo,  Interest  and  Education,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1908,  p.  48. 

192 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL    1 93 

must  determine  your  methods;  teacher  and  pupil  alike 
should  have  in  mind  the  relation  of  each  subject  to  its 
later  application.  Others,  and  theirs  are  not  the  least 
earnest  minds,  would  completely  reverse  the  relation; 
be  sure  that  your  presentation  of  subject  matter  is  such 
that  it  rouses  your  pupils  to  correct  methods  of  thinking, 
and  the  utilitarian  or  vocational  application  will  eo  ipso 
suggest  itself. 

Between  these  two  points  of  view  our  American 
schools  are  oscillating ;  they  sway  incontinently  from 
one  scheme  to  another,  and  their  educational  structure 
is  rendered  correspondingly  unsound. 

The  European  schools  are  not  distracted  by  the  same 
conflict ;  their  educational  experts  have  reached  the  rank 
of  advisers  through  prolonged  acquaintance  with  actual 
teaching;  they  are  positive  as  to  the  value  of  accuracy 
in  fundamental  attainments,  and  they  are  agreed  that  a 
definite  system  of  grouping  studies  is  best  calculated  to 
pave  the  way  for  the  several  types  of  activity,  profes- 
sional, technical,  or  commercial,  to  which  the  secondary 
school  student  tends.  Having  concluded  from  prolonged 
reflection  and  experience  that  a  certain  group  of  studies 
best  equips  students,  not  for  a  specific  vocation,  but  for 
efficiency  that  can  be  turned  to  satisfactory  account  in 
any  one  of  a  number  of  vocational  endeavors,  they  pre- 
scribe definitely  this  group  of  studies ;  and  the  public 
at  large  accepts  the  conclusions  which  expert  opinion 


194  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

has  reached ;  it  reposes  confidence  in  the  broad,  philo- 
sophic attitude  of  the  expert  as  against  the  well-mean- 
ing, but  hasty  inferences  of  the  amateur. 

There  is  nothing  undemocratic  in  accepting  expert 
opinion  rather  than  dilettantism.  When  we  allow  a  de- 
cisive voice  in  the  councils  of  our  educational  boards  to 
untrained  opinion  that  is  swayed  by  the  obtrusive  influ- 
ences of  the  moment  over  against  the  calm,  reasoned  con- 
victions of  the  trained  expert,  we  invite  the  educational 
anarchy  which  prevails.  An  accidental  combination  of 
popular  preferences  may  lead  to-day  to  the  acceptance  of 
a  policy  of  educational  advance;  a  few  months  hence, 
and  without  reason  or  warrant,  the  same  amateur  legisla- 
tion will,  without  adequate  trial  of  merit,  cancel  the  re- 
forms it  has  initiated. 

The  story  of  our  educational  endeavor  is  rich  in  such 
movements  within  a  vicious  circle;  we  scarcely  dare  wel- 
come the  new  thought,  because  we  have  so  often  seen  its 
undeserving  eclipse.  It  is  not  surprising  that  experi- 
ments, zealously  undertaken  in  one  section  of  the  coun- 
try, are  forgotten  when  they  have  been  abandoned  by 
their  originators,  and  are  taken  up  anew  elsewhere, 
as  though  they  had  not  previously  been  considered. 
An  influential  body  of  educational  experts,  representa- 
tive of  a  certain  type  of  educational  attainment  and  in- 
sight, would  naturally  record  the  nature  and  progress 
of  each  experiment;  they  would  eliminate  it  completely 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL      1 95 

if,  and  when,  found  untenable,  they  would  retain  and 
advance  its  meritorious  features  for  the  greatest  com- 
mon good. 

The  group  system  of  studies,  then,  as  the  expression 
of  expert  opinion  has  this  in  its  favor  against  a  policy 
of  free  election  in  courses  and  subjects:  it  challenges 
criticism  on  the  score  of  mature,  unbiased  reflection 
against  ill-considered,  incompetent  preference ;  it  guards 
against  unfounded  prejudice,  that  is  as  wasteful  in  pre- 
mature adoption  as  in  premature  abandonment  of  lines 
of  study. 

We  are  all  agreed  that  the  entire  range  of  studies 
embraced  in  the  secondary  school  curriculum  cannot  be 
compassed  in  their  respective  maximum  of  offerings  by 
one  and  the  same  pupil ;  choice  must  be  made,  but  it 
must  be  choice  under  wise  and  firm  direction,  dictated 
by  professional  knowledge  and  experience,  not  by  pa- 
rental whim  nor  by  the  dictates  of  chaotic  popular  senti- 
ment, least  of  all  by  the  moods  of  the  immature  pupil. 

It  is  significant  how  radically  different  is  the  conception 
of  electives  here  and  elsewhere.  Germany  has  intro- 
duced electives  in  the  last  two  years  of  its  gymnasial 
courses ;  they  are  options  in  studies  in  which  the  stu- 
dents have  displayed  more  than  average  ability  and  in- 
terest ;  they  are  granted  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
faculty,  and  they  are  counted  as  electives  (Kompensa- 
tion),  provided  the  pupil  justifies  the  liberty  of  choice 


196  THE    AACERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

accorded  him  by  performance  far  above  the  average. 
{Monatschrift  fur  /where  Schiden,  V,  18-22,  and  X, 
577-583,  the  latter  a  treatment  on  the  basis  of  Pesta- 
lozzian  doctrine.)  The  wisdom  of  such  control  of  out- 
right election  is  made  further  manifest  in  the  small 
number  of  students  who  register  for  elective  courses ; 
the  responsibility  attached  to  the  option  seems  to  reduce 
promptly  the  insistence  on  special  aptitudes. 

What  would  be  the  effect  on  our  elective  courses  in 
schools  and  colleges  if  similar  standards  were  en- 
forced P^  In  the  question  of  the  teacher's  attitude 
toward  elective  courses  of  study  and  the  election  of 
individual  studies  the  warning  utterances  of  those  who 
are  in  a  position  to  measure  the  consequences  cannot 
go  unheeded.  What  Browning  records  in  grateful  terras 
of  his  exceptional  father, 

"  Who  knew  better  than  turn  straight 
Learning's  full  flare  on  weak-eyed  ignorance," 

is  what  it  is  the  function  of  the  sympathetic  teacher  to 
regulate.2 

In  his  School,  College,  and  Character,  President 
LeBaron    Briggs,  formerly  Dean   of    Harvard  Univer- 

1  For  an  ardent  advocacy  of  the  elective  system,  vide  Charles  W. 
Eliot,  Educational  Ref 07-7)1,^.  132,  and  William  T.  Foster,  Administration 
of  the  College  Curriculum,  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  1911,  chaps.  IV- 
VII. 

2  President  Hadley  in  Educational  Review,  Nov.,  1904,  pp.  331,  333. 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      1 97 

sity,  says  in  an  essay,  "  Some  Old-Fashioned  Doubts 
about  New-Fashioned  Education":  "No  persons  lay 
themselves  open  more  recklessly  to  reductio  ad  absur- 
dum  than  advocates  of  the  elective  system.  Everybody 
believes  in  the  elective  system  at  some  stage  of  educa- 
tion ;  the  question  is  where  to  begin ;  yet  extension 
after  extension  is  advocated  on  general  grounds  of  lib- 
erty (such  liberty,  by  the  way,  as  nobody  has  in  active 
life),  and  propositions  are  brought  forward  which,  if  we 
accept  them,  give  the  elective  system  no  logical  end. 
Down  it  goes,  through  college,  high  school,  and  gram- 
mar  school,  till  not  even   the   alphabet  can   stop   it" 

(P-  37). 

"  For  any  responsible  work  we  want  men  of  charac- 
ter—  not  men  who  from  childhood  up  have  been  per- 
sonally conducted  and  have  had  their  education  warped 
to  the  indolence  of  their  minds  "  (p.  46). 

"  Training  (p.  61)  is  the  discipline  that  teaches  a  man 
to  develop  the  less  promising  parts  of  his  mind  as  well 
as  the  more  promising:  to  make  five  talents  ten,  and 
two,  five ;  to  see  that  in  his  specialty  he  shall  work  bet- 
ter and  enjoy  more  for  knowing  something  outside  of 
his  specialty ;  to  recognize  the  connection  between  pres- 
ent toil  and  future  attainment,  so  that  the  hope  of  future 
attainment  creates  pleasure  in  present  toil ;  to  under- 
stand that  nothing  can  be  mastered  without  drudgery, 
and  that  drudgery  in  preparation  for  service  is  not  only 


198  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

respectable,  but   beautiful ;    to  be  interested   in  every 
study,  no  matter  how  forbidding."  ^ 

Incidentally  he  quotes  with  approval  Dr.  Martineau's 
words :  "  I  warn  you  that  this  enervated  mood  (of 
choosing  only  agreeable  studies)  is  the  canker  of  manly 
thought  and  action."  To  advocate  for  the  pupils  in  the 
schools  the  unbridled  license  of  free  election,  is  particu- 
larly deprecated  by  Dean  Briggs  :  for  intelligent  choice 
at  the  college  stage,  pupils  should  be  prepared  by  vigor- 
ous training  that  creates  and  develops  a  full  sense  of 
responsibility.  More  than  individual  instances  it  is  the 
tendency  that  has  worked,  and  will  work,  harm.  It  leads 
insensibly  to  what  a  briUiant  teacher  of  scholarly  parts 
(Caskie  Harrison)  designated  the  elective  attitude  of 
mind,  the  elective  mode  of  study.  His  illustrations  can 
be  duplicated  from  the  experience  of  every  teacher. 
"  In  English  composition  the  boy  may  elect  to  do  what  is 
easy,  but  simply  to  neglect  the  requirements  of  practice 
and  revision,  because  he  does  not  intend  to  be  a  writer ; 
perhaps  he  has  examples  at  home  of  success  without 
even  epistolary  correctness.  When  to  an  elective  sys- 
tem of  study  we  add  the  insidious  perils  of  an  elective 


1  Briggs,  School,  College,  and  Character,  p.  123,  quotation  from  Cardi- 
nal Newman.  On  the  superficiality  of  exclusive  specialization,  vide 
Bascom,  "  Changes  in  College  Life,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1903, 
p.  750,  "  The  specialist,  even  in  his  own  department,  is  frequently  unable 
to  give  a  collective  view  of  truth." 


EDUCATIONAL  POLICY   OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      1 99 

mode  of  study  and  an  elective  attitude  of  mind,  teachers 
find  themselves  trying  to  live  and  manufacture  in  a 
vacuum." 

The  disintegration  resulting  from  uncontrolled  and 
unrelated  choice  militates  directly  against  unifying 
effort  in  the  secondary  school  work.  The  unconscious 
influence  of  logical  sequence  in  work  the  late  William  T. 
Harris,  in  the  St.  Louis  School  Reports,  1872  (p.  64),  dis- 
cussed thus  :  "What  the  mind  acquires  in  its  early  stages 
will  be  rudimentary,  but  will  furnish  a  rich  native  store 
for  future  thought  when  the  period  of  reflection  sets  in 
stronger.  The  roots  of  the  sciences  and  literature  and 
history  should  go  down  deep  into  the  earliest  years,  so 
that  the  unconscious  influence  derived  thence  shall  assist 
in  molding  the  taste,  will,  and  intellect,  during  the  most 
plastic  period  of  growth.  Without  this  unconscious 
molding  of  one's  views  of  the  world,  later  scientific 
and  literary  studies  are  likely  to  be  barren." 

One  need  not  consider  the  group  system  the  final 
solution  of  our  present-day  school  problem  and  its  con- 
gested curriculum,  but  it  points  the  way  to  a  satisfac- 
tory result.  It  is  the  product  of  fallible  human 
intelligence,  but  it  represents  at  least  a  distinct  guiding 
principle ;  it  safeguards  against  incoherence  and  lack 
of  continuity ;  for  irresponsibility  in  judgment,  for  the 
vagaries  of  untrained  faculties,  it  substitutes  the  reason- 
ing of  trained  insight. 


200  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Our  contention  here  is  for  the  fundamental  fact  that 
that  is  no  election  at  all  which  without  knowledge  of 
their  content  or  their  service  to  the  thinking  efficiency, 
chooses  some  subjects  and  discards  others ;  it  is  license, 
and  produces  the  usual  results  of  thoughtless  action  — 
disappointment,  discouragement,  waste  of  opportunity. 

In  every  sphere  of  activity,  and  why  not  in  educa- 
tion ?  all  reasonable  men  concede  that  expert  opinion 
should  dominate  and  direct;  the  layman  forbears  to 
solve  the  engineer's  problems,  to  suggest  therapeutic 
procedure  to  the  physician,  or  methods  of  legal  tech- 
nique to  the  lawyer ;  his  interference  would  call  forth 
the  sharpest  reprimand ;  why  should  it  be  otherwise  in 
questions  educational  ?  Doctrine  and  experience  should 
afford  a  basis  of  professional  judgment,  capable  of 
vindicating  educational  processes  against  amateur  predi- 
lections ;  if  the  teacher  follows  in  the  practice  of  his  art 
certain  methods  whose  raison  d'etre  he  cannot  justify,  he 
in  just  so  far  falls  short  of  professional  equipment.  The 
plea  for  due  recognition  of  professional  authority  can 
be  sustained  only  if  those  in  charge  of  educational 
interests  are  able  to  demonstrate  in  argument  and  con- 
ference their  complete  command  of  the  issues  involved. 

It  is  a  question  of  administration  of  schools  rather 
than  of  inner  organization  that  differentiates  the  German 
secondary  schools  with  their  three  types  of  study  com- 
binations (the  classical  Gymnasium,  the  Realgymnasium 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL      20I 

with  its  Latin-scientific  course,  and  the  Oberrealschule 
with  its  science  and  modern  language  course)  from  our 
high  schools.  We  harbor  under  one  roof  and  one  ad- 
ministration as  many  parallel  courses  as  we  can  offer 
with  the  available  teaching  corps.  We  carry  this  par- 
allelism of  courses  so  far  that  it  persists  even  in  high 
schools  whose  designation  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  they  are  devoted  to  one  special  type  of  educational 
effort,  as  for  instance,  in  the  Commercial  High  School 
of  New  York,  in  the  Manual  Training  High  Schools 
of  New  York  and  Brooklyn ;  one  cannot  even  say 
that  the  course  indicated  in  the  special  title  is  invariably 
the  dominant  one.^  The  system  of  the  parallel  courses 
within  the  same  high  school  is  not  founded  upon  any 
educational  conviction ;  like  the  coeducational  plan,  it 
is  the  outcome  of  the  financial  needs  of  the  community.^ 
It  has  been  regarded  as  distinctly  more  economical  to 
arrange  for  a  community  of  moderate  size  one  high 
school,  and,  if  need  be,  parallel  courses  within  its  walls, 
than  to  organize  two  or  three  distinct  high  schools,  each 
limited  to  one  type  of  secondary  instruction.  When  the 
entire  high  school  attendance  in  a  given  town  lies  be- 
tween sixty  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  students  (and 
this  represents  a  great  proportion  of  our  high  schools), 

1  Sadler's  reasons  for  advocating  differentiation  of  types  in  second- 
ary schools,  English  Special  Reports,  IX,  153. 

2  E.  E.  Brown,  The  Making  of  our  Middle  Schools,  p.  405. 


202  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

it  is  obvious  that  not  more  than  one  high  school  can  be 
provided  from  public  funds ;  in  such  cases  it  would  be 
disastrous  if  a  single  course  without  any  opportunity  for 
parallelism  or  option  were  insisted  on. 

Germany,  with  its  strict  maintenance  of  sharply  dif- 
ferentiated school  types,  has  suffered  certain  disadvan- 
tages which  it  is  now  engaged  in  remedying ;  a  study  of 
the  educational  map  of  Prussia,^  e.g.  on  which  are 
registered  the  location  and  type  of  each  secondary 
school  in  the  kingdom,  shows  that  within  a  radius  of 
many  hundred  square  miles  the  secondary  pupils  often 
find  only  one  type  of  school  available,  usually  the 
classical  gymnasium,  and  must  forego  the  opportunities 
of  the  scientific  or  modern  school  type.  The  remedy 
adopted  has  been  an  instructive  one ;  no  new  classical 
gymnasia  are  being  installed  anywhere  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, and  a  number  of  those  in  existence  in  small  towns 
are  being  transformed  into  Realgymnasia  or  Oberreal- 
schulen,  especially  in  the  industrial  sections. 

Our  most  serious  difficulties  in  shaping  the  educa- 
tional poUcy  of  our  secondary  schools  lie  in  the  fact 
that  we  have  failed  in  too  many  cases  to  make  clear 
to  ourselves  how  we  can  secure  for  the  various  subjects 
the  best  educational  results  in  view  of  the  pupils'  actual 
attainments;   we  have   been   told   by  the   next   higher 

^  Karte  deroffentlichen  hoheren  Lehranstalten  im  Konigreich  Preussen, 
von  M.  Killmann  herausgegeben  (Berlin,  Reimer). 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY   OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      203 

group  of  institutions,  the  colleges  and  the  technical 
schools,  in  fairly  definite  terms,  what  knowledge  they 
demand  of  the  pupils  for  entrance ;  to  give  them  this 
knowledge,  this  power,  has  seemed  to  most  high 
schools  the  ultimate  goal  to  strive  for,  and  as  the 
attainment  of  this  knowledge  has  proved  a  serious 
tax  upon  the  energies  and  capacities  of  the  teachers 
and,  in  consequence,  of  the  pupils,  no  room  is  left 
for  the  consideration  of  these  subjects  as  parts  of  a 
larger  educational  scheme. 

What  the  college  authorities  have  announced  as  their 
requirements  is  a  minimum ;  that  nothing  short  of  this 
would  suffice  should  be  the  natural  assumption  ;  and 
therefore  in  the  interest  of  the  pupil's  later  welfare 
and  of  the  standing  of  the  school  that  sends  him  forth 
one  might  reasonably  expect  that  something  very  much 
more  comprehensive  than  this  minimum  would  be 
striven  for  by  the  school,  so  that  the  fulfillment  of 
the  minimum  requirement  would  be  but  an  incident 
in  a  richer  program. 

For  various  reasons  this  has  not  been  the  case ;  the 
minimum  requirement  has  become  in  fact  a  maximum 
of  desirable  attainment;  the  colleges  have  interpreted 
their  own  minimum  standards  in  very  elastic  fashion, 
have  accepted  offerings  far  below  their  nominal  stand- 
ards, and  weak  and  ineffective  schools  have  all  too 
gladly  recognized  in  this  temporizing   attitude   of   the 


204  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

colleges  their  privilege  to  do  superficial  and  unsatis- 
factory work.  The  conditioning  of  students  at  college 
entrance  which  has  undermined  the  efficiency  of  college 
work  in  the  first  year,  if  not  beyond^  (Pritchett,  4th 
Annual  Report  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Teaching,  p.  141),  has  in  like  fashion  sapped 
the  efficiency  of  many  secondary  schools ;  the  possibil- 
ities of  evading  the  consequences  of  inaccurate  and 
indifferent  work  seem  too  numerous. 

If  it  were  made  clear  (i.)  that  the  minimum  stipu- 
lated would  be  upheld  with  relentless  persistence,  and 
(2)  that  this  minimum  of  attainment  measured  mainly  in 
terms  of  intellectual  power  could  not  be  safely  realized 
except  as  incidental  to  a  very  much  broader  course, 
the  degrading  spectacle  of  time  spent  in  gauging  the 
minimum  of  effort  required  for  a  passing  mark  would 
disappear.  Intellectual  power  is  a  rather  intangible 
thing  to  measure,  and  the  only  safeguard  of  school 
and  pupil  should  lie  in  comprehensive  work,  within 
which  the  more  specific  test  would  naturally  fall.  The 
familiar  standards  of  West  Point  and  Annapolis  illus- 
trate the  aim  we  have  in  view ;  entering  students  who 

^ "  The  moment  there  is  introduced  into  a  college  class  a  consider- 
able proportion  of  ill-prepared  students,  the  difficulties  of  instruction 
are  enormously  increased,  and  the  general  good  of  the  body  which 
the  college  most  directly  seeks  to  serve  is  sacrificed  to  give  a  chance 
to  an  entirely  different  class." 


EDUCATIONAL  POLICY   OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      205 

have  met  the  minimum  requirements,  but  have  not 
developed  a  much  more  comprehensive  background 
of  intellectual  capacity,  fail  frequently  to  cope  with 
the  exigencies  of  the  course. 

A  marked  advance,  making  for  more  rational  stand- 
ards of  admission,  for  the  encouragement  of  independ- 
ent programs  by  secondary  schools,  and  for  the  abolition 
of  the  disgraceful  subterfuge  of  the  conditioning  system, 
is  indicated  in  the  new  system  of  Harvard  entering  ex- 
aminations ^  {^School  Review,  June,  1911,  pp.  412-413). 

It  has  been  the  fashion  for  the  secondary  school  to 
throw  the  odium  for  its  own  ill-balanced  courses  of  instruc- 
tion on  the  college  requirements ;  there  has  been  much 
fooUsh  talk  about  the  dictatorial  attitude  of  the  colleges 
on  questions  in  which  they  lack  practical  acquaintance. 
If  the  colleges  have  added  to  their  statements  of  require- 
ments rather  specific  indications  of  a  desirable  procedure 
within  the  sphere  of  secondary  schools,  it  has  been 
due  to  an  absence  of  agreement,  a  lack  of  definite 
educational  policy,  among  secondary  teachers,  that  is 
entitled  to  serious  recognition  as  the  expression  of 
a  great  body  of  educational  experts  in  the  secondary 
field. 

As  long  as  each  city's  secondary  schools  reflect 
merely  the  individual  views  of  the  officer  temporarily 
at  their  head,  whose  unstable  tenure  of  office  operates 

»  Report  of  president  of  Harvard  College  for  1909-1910,  254  £f. 


206  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

directly  against  the  initiation  of  far-reaching  policies, 
and  as  long  as  our  preference  for  individualism  en- 
courages differentiation  in  school  organization  rather 
than  the  frank  adoption  of  general  governing  principles, 
to  which  minor  individual  idiosyncracies  may  well  be 
sacrificed,  our  progress  toward  homogeneousness  in 
school  effort  will  be  disheartening. 

We  do  not  plead  for  the  centralizing  activity  of  the 
experts  in  the  Prussian  educational  ministry,  though 
their  plans  and  modifications  of  plans  are  actuated 
solely  by  their  convictions  on  educational  efficiency,  nor 
for  the  formal  classifying  tendency  of  the  French  gov- 
ernmental schools.  Our  teachers  cannot  brook,  we 
often  hear,  bureaucratic  control  in  the  elaboration  of 
educational  schemes ;  but  we  ought  to  have  an  agree- 
ment in  policy,  reached  by  conferences  of  the  leading 
secondary  school  experts  of  the  country.  Local  con- 
ditions, local  preferences  are  insignificant  in  the  con- 
sideration of  such  questions,  as  "  How  shall  physics 
and  chemistry  be  taught  in  the  high  school  ?  "  "  In 
what  sequence  and  with  what  distribution  of  time 
shall  the  mathematical  subjects  occur  ?"  "  How  many 
years,  and  periods  in  each  year,  shall  be  devoted  to 
history?  "  "What  consitutes  a  sound  secondary  history 
course,  and  by  what  methods  of  instruction  shall  the 
teacher  secure  his  results.'"  "What  is  to  be  the 
aim  of  our  English  work  ?       By  the  use  of  what  lines 


EDUCATIONAL  POLICY    OF    THE   SECONDARY   SCHOOL      207 

of  work,  and  the  omission  of  what  considerations,  can 
we  make  it  genuinely  valuable  ?  "  "How  are  modern 
languages  to  be  taught  ?  for  what  reasons  ?  What 
is  the  needful  equipment  of  the  teacher  for  the  task  ?  " 

Imagine  that  by  a  series  of  conferences  initiated  by 
a  score  of  cities,  an  authoritative  body  of  school  experts 
reached  definite  conclusions,  as  did  the  Committee  of 
Ten  in  1892,  and  that  a  larger  number  of  city  school 
administrations  expressed  their  willingness  to  adopt  for 
a  period  of  ten  years  such  a  report  as  the  basis  of  a 
rearrangement  of  curricula  ;  that  a  frank  determination 
to  give  these  convictions  and  suggestions  the  fullest 
trial  were  reached  ;  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  impetus  of 
such  a  concerted  movement  would  mark  an  advance 
that  would  be  reflected  in  more  effective  teaching 
throughout  the  whole  country.  Nowhere  is  the  force 
of  concerted  example  more  potent.  Then  it  would 
matter  httle  whether  this  or  that  superintendent  hap- 
pened to  be  in  control  in  a  city  in  a  given  year.  Why 
should  that  which  is  recognized  as  good  teaching,  as 
rational  arrangement  of  subject  matter  in  Indianapolis 
and  in  San  Francisco  not  be  as  valid  for  Buffalo  and 
New  York  ? 

Is  it  not  absurd,  on  the  contrary,  to  assume  that  there 
are  special  educational  panaceas  for  each  community.'' 
Would  not  the  very  existence  of  such  a  conference 
make  for  the  adoption  of  larger  educational  views  and 


208  THE   AMERICAN    SECOND/VRY    SCHOOL 

eliminate  narrow  sectional  prejudices?  This  suggestion 
does  not  involve  absolute  uniformity.  There  would  be 
ample  room  for  differentiation  within  certain  great  lines 
of  agreement. 

The  experience  of  the  sub-committees  that  con- 
tributed to  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  is  a 
valuable  one  for  all  similar  efforts.  It  had  been 
expected  that  radical  divergences  of  opinion  and  theory 
would  be  disclosed  that  would  make  unanimous  recom- 
mendations impossible.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  discussion  the  differences  proved  to  be  of 
neghgible  importance,  the  points  of  agreement  numer- 
ous;  it  was  a  question  of  definite  formulation  of  belief. 
The  very  effort  at  reaching  an  understanding  leads  to  a 
sifting  of  essentials  from  non-essentials,  gives  emphasis 
to  a  broader  educational  conception  than  is  likely  to  be 
reached  by  any  separate  community.  It  is  our  way  of 
advancing,  and  it  is  a  very  good  one,  this  fashion  of 
abiding  by  the  judgment  of  those  we  trust.  No  indi- 
vidual city  superintendent,  no  local  body  of  associate 
superintendents,  can  take  rank  in  this  widest  sense  as 
educational  experts ;  admirably  informed,  excellently 
intentioned,  they  cannot  but  be  local  educational  experts, 
until  in  such  conferences  they  emancipate  themselves 
from  the  consideration  of  local  problems,  and  breathe 
the  freer  air  of  a  larger  educational  legislation. 

The  educational  expert,  who  would  stand  outside  of 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      209 

any  single  city  school  system,  but  who  combined  with 
thorough  study  and  philosophic  grasp  of  the  large 
educational  questions  a  knowledge  of  the  social  and 
economic  situation  of  each  community,  who  would  be 
ready  to  stake  his  professional  reputation  on  the  sound- 
ness of  his  suggestions,  such  an  educational  expert,  for 
instance,  as  England  possesses  in  Sir  Michael  Sadler, 
might  seem  to  some  a  more  effective  agent  of  reorgani- 
zation than  the  larger  body  of  conferees  suggested  above, 
but  what  city  superintendent  in  the  United  States  would 
be  prepared  to  subordinate  his  views  to  those  of  even 
so  acknowledged  an  authority,  what  local  community 
would  invite  the  diagnosis  of  such  a  man  and  adopt 
outright  his  remedial  suggestions  ?  ^ 

In  an  addition  to  this  chapter  an  effort  has  been  made 
to  point  out  the  value  of  Sadler's  expert  judgment  in  its 
suggestions  of  improvement  of  the  secondary  school  situ- 
ation in  England. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  problem  of  the  sec- 
ondary school  course  that  leads  to  the  doors  of  the  col- 
lege or  scientific  school  affords  relatively  the  least 
difficulties ;  with  the  goal  definitely  in  view,  and  the  re- 

1  The  bit  of  contemporary  history  connected  with  the  publication  of  the 
Report  of  the  Commission  on  the  Baltimore  Schools  (United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  No.  4,  1911)  and  the  action  of  the  munici- 
pal authorities  {^Educational  Rez'tav,  Nov.  and  Dec,  1911)  may  serve  to 
confirm  the  statements  in  the  text. 


2IO  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

quirements  stated  in  fairly  comprehensible  terms,  it  be- 
comes primarily  a  question  of  adjustment  to  accomplish 
the  ends  sought  in  the  time  available,  and  to  approximate 
as  well  as  possible  to  the  satisfactory  attainment  of  these 
ends.  Accommodation  to  a  definite  prescription,  espe- 
cially when  successive  generations  of  teachers  are  con- 
fronted with  the  same  task,  is  not  impossible,  and  the 
preparatory  course  represents  altogether  a  fairly  reason- 
able arrangement  of  the  secondary  studies. 

But  what  shall  be  the  scheme  for  those  who  do  not 
intend,  cannot  afford  to  complete  the  preparatory  sec- 
ondary school  course  ?  And  what  shall  be  its  relation- 
ship to  the  college  preparatory  course  ?  The  genius  of 
the  educational  expert,  it  would  seem,  might  well  be  ex- 
pended upon  a  study  of  these  relations.^ 

Here  we  are  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  we  must 
reach  a  definite  standpoint  to  determine  in  which  direc- 
tion the  studies  for  the  great  mass  of  secondary  pupils 
shall  tend.  Here  is  our  crucial  problem,  and  the  com- 
plete subordination  of  the  interests  of  this  majority  to 
the  needs  of  the  future  college  and  scientific  school 
student  is  responsible  for  the  revulsion  of  sentiment  in 
the  community  that  finds  expression  in  the  cry  for  voca- 
tional training.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  high  school 
can  lead  by  modification  of  method  in  a  number  of  studies 

1  C.  O.  Davis,  "  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education,"  Educa- 
tional Review,  Oct.,  1911,  270-301. 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF    THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL      211 

more  directly  to  vocational  efficiency,  but  its  central 
purpose  would  be  eliminated  if  it  became  entirely,  or  in 
one  of  its  departments,  a  vocational  school;  at  that 
moment  the  fundamental  thought,  out  of  which  second- 
ary instruction  developed,  the  creation  of  intellectual 
initiative,  would  be  replaced  by  a  new  aim,  that  of 
directing  effort  upon  the  acquisition  of  earning  capacity. 

The  adoption  of  the  new  name,  vocational  school,  can- 
not obscure  the  fact  that  what  its  advocates  call  for  is  a 
trade  school,  a  school  whose  training  for  a  definite  occu- 
pation renders  the  pupil  at  its  close  capable  to  perform 
remunerative  work.  Commissioner  Snedden  of  Massa- 
chusetts has  distinguished  once  for  all  between  liberal 
and  vocational  education. ^  "  Vocational  schools  have 
their  place  in  the  educational  efforts  of  the  community, 
collateral  with  our  secondary  schools  in  the  age  to  which 
they  minister,  but  entirely  different  in  aim  ;  they  frankly 
specialize  to  one  distinct  purpose,  that  of  leading  by  the 
most  immediate  path  to  productive  work." 

Several  facts,  as  we  see  the  situation,  stand  out 
prominently ;  there  is  a  distinct  danger  that  in  striving 
for  the  acquisition  of  vocational  efficiency,  we  uproot  the 
general  aims  of  our  secondary  schools,  i.  Vocational 
schools  will  be  of  little  service,  unless  the  courses  of  in- 

1  Cf.  Snedden,  David  S.,  "  The  Problem  of  Vocational  Education  " 
(Riverside  Educational  Monographs,  Houghton  Mifflin  Confipany),  pp. 
71-81. 


212  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

struction  are  shaped  uncompromisingly  to  the  develop- 
ment of  skill  and  intelligence  in  a  speciiic  vocation  ; 
they  must  frankly  abandon  the  pretense  to  combine  with 
their  aims  those  of  a  Hberal,  cultural  course,  otherwise 
we  shall  again  develop  a  hybrid  institution  that  is  neither 
successfully  vocational,  nor  genuinely  liberalizing. 

2.  In  any  community,  even  though  its  interests  be 
predominantly  of  one  type,  say  the  shoe  or  the  weaving 
industry,  a  single  type  of  vocational  school  that  prepares 
for  a  single  industry  only,  is  unsatisfactory;  it  would  re- 
strict vocational  training  to  the  prevaihng  interest,  and 
make  no  adequate  provision  for  the  numerous  subsidiary 
or  supplemental  industries,  in  each  one  of  which  equally 
adequate  training  should  be  afforded.  How  many  of 
our  communities  appreciate  the  significance  of  this  fact  ? 
Munich  with  its  forty-six  different  kinds  of  trade  schools 
affords  a  case  in  point ;  it  is  still  organizing  ;  it  does  not 
pretend  to  have  covered  every  possibility  ;  for  every  new 
industrial  demand  it  is  prepared  to  open  up  a  special 
school  of  vocational  training. 

In  our  communities  in  particular,  with  their  mobile 
population,  it  is  unwise,  unprofitable  to  restrict  the 
vocational  outlook  of  our  young  people  even  by  the  pre- 
vailing industrial  tendency  of  the  town.  How  often 
have  economic  conditions  that  are  beyond  local  control 
completely  effaced  the  dominant  industries  !  An  un- 
foreseen combinatidn  of  circumstances  may  initiate  new 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF    THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL       21 3 

industries  with  their  new  demands,  for  which  the  pre- 
vious vocational  trend  of  the  schools  affords  no  technical 
equipment.  This  danger  is  a  very  vital  one,  far  more 
imminent  in  our  newer  civilization  than  in  the  more 
conservative  communities  of  Europe. 

And  finally,  the  current  belief  that  such  vocational 
schools  are  easily  manned,  that  competent  teachers 
of  vocational  subjects  are  readily  secured  and  are 
less  expensive  than  teachers  of  advanced  cultural  sub- 
jects, is  without  foundation.  All  over  Europe  the  ques- 
tion of  the  supply  of  teachers  and  of  their  special 
training  for  their  difficult  task  is  one  of  the  greatest  prob- 
lems of  the  vocational  school.  (Report  Commissioner 
of  Education,  1910,  322-323.)  The  combination  of 
a  high  order  of  technical  proficiency  with  pedagogic 
skill  in  presentation  is  a  very  unusual  one,  diflficult  to 
secure,  more  difficult  to  retain;  the  vocational  school 
can  tolerate,  less  than  the  average  cultural  secondary 
school,  teachers  of  mediocre  attainments.^  There  is  no 
escape  from  the  exacting  demands  of  the  shop  or  the 
factory;  a  vocational  school  that  does  not  properly 
qualify  for  a  given  vocation  is  self-condemned.  And 
yet  we  all  know  of  courses  in  the  manual  arts  whose 
teachers  fail  either  as  adepts  in  craftsmanship  or  in  the 

*  The  account  of  the  various  efforts  made  in  Berlin,  Munich, 
Diisseldorf,  and  elsewhere  to  develop  the  artistic  as  well  as  the  peda- 
gogic capacity  of  these  teachers  merits  detailed  consideration. 


214  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

art  of  imparting,  of  commercial  courses  whose  teachers 
lack  completely  the  intellectual  grasp  that  is  needed  to 
vitalize  the  larger  concept  of  commerce.  Is  this  type 
of  teacher  likely  to  initiate  satisfactorily  the  new  type 
of  vocational  school  ? 

What  then  are  we  to  regard  as  the  policy  of  wisdom 
in  our  school  system?  A  vocational  school  cannot  by 
its  very  nature  be  a  secondary  school;  if  we  retain  our 
belief  in  the  value  of  a  prolonged  course  of  school  work 
that  shall  disclose  the  variety  of  intellectual  interests 
inherent  in  a  broader  outlook  upon  life,  then  we  must 
adhere  to  the  initial  conception,  out  of  which  our  second- 
ary schools  have  grown  ;  they  have  been  supposed  to 
encourage  intellectual  efficiency,  and  sympathy  with 
cultural  ideals  ;  they  may  retain  this  prerogative,  and 
yet  combine  with  it  the  worthy  aim  to  prepare  for  the 
economic  efficiency  of  their  pupils.  But  they  cannot 
subvert  the  relations  and  make  economic  efficiency  the 
sole  determining  measure,  with  the  intellectual  product 
merely  incidental  to  it.  There  is  nothing  discreditable, 
if  individual  or  community  prefer  this  new  relationship  ; 
in  a  certain  blind,  groping  fashion  many  have  probably 
sanctioned  the  secondary  school  in  the  expectation  of 
just  such  a  relationship.  They  have  mistaken  its  pur- 
pose ;  perhaps  we  have  far  more  secondary  schools  than 
we  need.  Eliminate  them,  where  their  functioning 
makes  no  appeal  to  the  communities  that  have  supported 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL       215 

them,  and  transform  them  unhesitatingly  into  vocational 
or  trade  schools ;  but  let  the  secondary  school,  as  we 
conceive  its  mission,  not  fall  between  two  stools,  ineffec- 
tive to  serve  either  end. 

There  must  be  a  clear  understanding  as  to  the  distri- 
bution of  emphasis  in  our  secondary  school  work.  The 
utilitarian  trend  is  in  every  way  meritorious  ;  what  we 
object  to  is  to  have  the  mere  standard  of  the  market 
accentuated  and  made  paramount  over  the  broadening, 
developing  opportunity  of  the  secondary  school.^  With 
Dr.  Snedden  {The  Problem  of  Vocational  Education)  we 
admit  that  "  some  of  the  studies  which  contribute  to 
liberal  education  may  be  so  handled  as  to  give  a  basis, 
or  approach,  or  means  of  approach  to  subsequent  liberal 
education,"  but  with  him  we  insist  that  "vocational 
education  is  a  supplemental  form  of  liberal  education"  ; 
the  secondary  school  is  not  to  give  vocational  education, 
but  to  shape  the  training  of  the  pupil  in  such  a  fashion  as 
to  prepare  him  for  vocational  efficiency.  In  an  optimistic 
survey  of  American  educational  effort  ("  The  Unrest 
in  Secondary  Education  in  Germany  and  Elsewhere," 
in  English  Special  Reports,  IX,  155)  Sir  Michael 
Sadler  asserts  that  "  the  leaders  of  American  education 
show  a  united  front  against  any  narrowly  commercial 
spirit  in  the  secondary  schools  ;  the  business  atmosphere 

1  F.  G.  Bonser,  Fundametttal  Values  in  Industrial  Edtication  (Teachers 
College  Bulletin,  3d  Series,  No.  6). 


2l6  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

in  America  is  already  so  tense  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
secondary  school  rather  to  provide  a  counteracting 
influence  than  to  intensify  the  interest  in  commercial 
matters."  It  is  the  bread-and-butter  idea  he  has  in  mind, 
and  the  clamor  for  purely  vocational  ends  (in  the  indus- 
tries as  well  as  in  commerce)  is  just  now  an  imminent 
danger  to  the  deliberate  unfolding  which  is  inseparable 
from  the  proper  prosecution  of  secondary  studies. 
There  is  nothing  more  narrowing  than  the  insistent 
demand  "  What  is  the  tangible  usefulness  of  this  subject, 
of  this  or  that  phase  of  the  subject  ? "  There  is  something 
quite  beyond  the  weighable  and  measurable  efficacy  of 
each  educational  step ;  the  development  of  power,  the 
attainment  of  power,  cannot  be  expressed  in  so  many 
units,  and  yet  it  gives  larger  and  more  satisfactory 
results  than  manipulative  skill  in  any  one  vocation. 
Better  than  theory  in  estimating  the  value  of  educational 
procedure  is  the  record   of    results. 

Germany  knows  that  in  view  of  the  numerous  voca- 
tions the  probability  of  correctly  determining  at  the 
outset  of  the  secondary  school  on  just  what  vocational 
work  the  ultimate  activity  of  a  pupil  had  best  be  con- 
centrated is  most  remote;  it  realizes  that  it  would 
restrict  educational  opportunity  if  the  process  of  vo- 
cational specialization  were  begun  too  early ;  its  Real- 
schulen  have  laid  the  foundation  for  its  phenomenal 
advance  in  commerce,  industry,  and  the   arts,  without 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL      217 

the  slightest  concession  to  immediate  vocational  ends. 
Their  Realschulen  prepare  for  vocational  efficiency 
without  training  in  vocation  (Ware,  Educational  Founda- 
tions of  Trade  and  Industry,  Appleton,  1901,  p.  100)  ; 
they  are  not  narrowly  utilitarian  ;  they  initiate  into  a 
consideration  of  the  real  issues  of  life  by  methods  that 
are  scientific.  The  Germans  contend  that,  in  as  far 
as  their  instruction  is  liberalizing,  it  contributes  to 
practical  efficiency  ;  their  stress  is  laid  upon  the  train- 
ing of  the  faculties,  upon  securing  a  basis  of  accurate, 
interrelated  information  ;  upon  ability  to  arrive  at  sound 
conclusions.  They  keep  the  gross  conception  of  utility 
in  the  background,  but  develop  capacity  all  the  more 
effectively. 

Those  who  advocate  the  subordination  of  every  other 
educational  consideration  to  the  test  of  utility  will  do 
well  to  consider  the  outcome  of  Germany's  educational 
methods.  The  enlightened  opinion  of  England  has  ac- 
cepted the  doctrine  of  Germany  as  the  true  solution  of 
present-day  requirements,  and  is  planning  a  reconstruc- 
tion of  its  secondary  schools  on  the  same  lines. 

A  phase  of  this  reconstruction  which  is  extremely 
significant  comes  to  us  with  the  authority  of  Mr.  Sad- 
ler, who  has  probably  devoted  more  thought  to  the 
problem  than  any  living  Englishman.  He  realizes  that 
many  boys  and  girls  need  guidance  beyond  the  usual 
limits  of  the  elementary  school;  they  cannot  continue 


2l8  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

school  Studies  beyond  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  when 
they  are  to  enter  upon  some  remunerative  pursuit.  To 
give  them  fragments  of  studies  which  bear  their  fruit 
only  when  pursued  to  completion  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
or  nineteen,  involves  loss  of  time  to  the  pupil  and  the 
school;  the  more  generous  outlook  of  the  secondary 
studies,  planned  for  a  long  succession  of  years,  does  not 
admit  of  proper  presentation  in  proportional  segments 
of  information. 

A  differentiation  in  aim  and  method  is  considered 
imperative ;  it  has  led  to  the  recommendation  of  a  new 
type  of  intermediate  schools,  the  Higher  Elementary 
Schools,  the  scheme  of  which  embraces  a  widening 
cultural  tendency  within  the  limits  of  a  three  years' 
course;  in  such  schools  the  trend  toward  vocational 
interests  is  recognized,  though  it  is  not  allowed  to  dom- 
inate. To  a  certain  degree  these  schools  correspond  to 
the  successful  higher  grade  schools  of  Scotland.^  An 
outline  of  the  first  two  years  of  this  three-year  course^ 
combines  with  such  subjects  as  geography,  nature  study, 
drawing,  practical  physics,  elementary  mathematics, 
handicraft  exercises,  etc.,  the  demand  for  strong  teach- 

1  Sadler,  Report  on  Secondary  and  Higher  Education  in  Derbyshire,  1905, 
pp.  13-23 ;    Report  on  Secondary  and  Higher  Education  in  Hampshire^ 

1904,  p.  40. 

2  Sadler,    Report  on  Secondary  and  Higher  Education   in  Newcastle, 

1905,  p.  36. 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL     219 

ing  in  the  mother  tongue,  for  the  cultivation  of  a  taste 
for  good  literature,  the  development  of  a  sense  of  civic 
duty,  and  for  all  pupils  the  curriculum  should  include 
French  as  an  optional  subject ;  the  latter  would  give 
the  pupils  a  better  understanding  of  their  own  language, 
and  would  widen  their  intellectual  outlook  and  sym- 
pathies by  helping  them  to  appreciate  the  national  life 
and  ideals  of  a  great  foreign  people. 

The  Higher  Elementary  School  marks  a  great  con- 
structive advance  upon  the  content  of  the  elementary 
school,  furnishing  a  body  of  information  and  a  basis 
of  intellectual  interests  that  will  justify  a  prolongation 
by  several  years  of  school  life ;  this  information,  it  is 
expected,  will  prove  practically  serviceable,  but  the 
narrow  utilitarian  standpoint  is  distinctly  kept  out  of 
sight;  anything  like  premature  specialization  is  strongly 
deprecated.^ 

It  is  significant  that  such  a  course  is  supposed  to 
make  its  popular  appeal  to  the  English  mind  by  the  use 
of  the  term  "  Higher  Elementary  Schools" ;  parents  and 
pupils  are  more  Ukely  to  be  attracted  to  it  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  designated  as  an  enlargement,  an  expansion  of  the 
previous  scope  of  the  elementary  school,  and  the  re- 
sponsibility of  public  provision  for  it  will  thus  encounter 
the  least  opposition. 

1  Sadler,  Report  on   Secondary  and  Higher  Education  in  Essex,   1906, 
pp.  66-67. 


220  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

With  us  in  the  United  States,  though  we  approved 
of  the  scheme  and  the  subjects  embraced  in  it,  the  very 
name  would  be  fatal  to  its  popularity  ;  neither  pupils 
nor  the  general  public  would  sanction  a  classification 
that  would  not  seem  to  advance  pupils  into  an  insti- 
tution of  an  entirely  new  character ;  whether  even  the 
name  "Junior  High  School,"  if  reserved  for  such  a  type 
of  school,  would  not  be  received  with  some  resentment, 
it  is  difficult  to  foretell. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  average  citizen  will 
at  once  realize  the  advantages  of  a  course  that  does  not 
obtrusively  lead  into  practical  utilities;  it  requires  a 
more  philosophic  survey  of  the  situation  to  anticipate 
the  more  substantial  advantage  that  will  accrue  from  a 
wisely  elaborated  scheme.  It  is,  therefore,  the  duty  of 
our  educational  leaders  to  plant  themselves  firmly  on 
this  doctrine  and  prove  its  value  to  the  uninitiated. 
From  them,  above  all,  must  come  the  detailed  plan  of 
educational  reform  ;  a  surrender  of  the  doctrine  of  a 
liberalizing  education  in  deference  to  the  momentary 
tendency  of  utilitarianism  would  end,  as  similar  extreme 
movements  have  resulted,  in  disappointment  and  disaster. 

The  remedy  for  the  betterment  of  educational  condi- 
tions is  not  found  in  upheaval,  but  in  careful  adjust- 
ment; previous  experiences  have  established  the  fact 
that  the  revolutionary  spirit  passes  but  too  readily  into 
the  reactionary,  when  its  anticipations  are  not  realized. 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY   OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL     221 

In  his  admirable  treatise,  The  Teaching  of  Geometry, 
(Ginn  &  Co.,  191 1)  Professor  David  Eugene  Smith  says 
of  geometry  teaching  what  may  well  be  applied  to  the 
whole  secondary  curriculum  in  view  of  the  vocational 
demand  :  "  Continually  to  destroy,  continually  to  follow 
strange  gods,  always  to  decry  the  best  of  the  old,  and 
to  have  no  well-considered  aim  in  the  teaching  of  a 
subject  —  this  is  to  join  the  forces  of  reaction,  to  waste 
our  time,  to  be  recreant  to  our  trust,  to  blind  ourselves 
to  the  failures  of  the  past,  and  to  confess  our  weakness 
as  teachers." 

"  The  only  possible  basis  for  a  successful  system  of 
higher  education  (be  it  commercial,  technical,  or  profes- 
sional) is  to  be  found  in  an  intellectually  thorough, 
readily  accessible,  and  morally  vigorous,  system  of  sec- 
ondary education."  (Sadler,  "  Recent  Developments  in 
Higher  Commercial  Education  in  Germany,"  English 
Special  Reports,  IX,  525.) 

In  this  view  many  of  our  most  thoughtful  educators 
concur  ;  they  have  observed  with  great  apprehension 
the  wave  of  unreflecting  popular  enthusiasm  in  favor  of 
vocational  work  in  our  secondary  schools ;  they  fear  its 
effects  upon  the  cause  of  sound  educational  advance, 
which  depends  on  evolution  from  within  rather  than  on 
unmatured  substitution  of  a  new  tendency.  They  ap- 
preciate the  desirability  of  advancing  industrial  effi- 
ciency, but  it  is  to  be  coupled  with  the  ideal  of  a  liberal 


222  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

education ;  to  weaken  the  standards  of  intellectual  dis- 
cipline which  is  acknowledged  the  distinguishing  mark 
of  the  secondary  school,  is  to  prepare  the  way  for  its 
ultimate  extinction. 

The  function  of  the  secondary  school  with  its  length- 
ening educational  opportunities  is  to  prepare  for  life  (as 
the  phrase  goes) ;  for  college,  the  technical  school,  the 
professions.  It  is  not  expected  to  turn  out  a  finished 
product  for  the  higher  schools,  neither  should  it  under- 
take to  turn  out  a  finished  vocational  expert  in  any  prac- 
tical occupation ;  it  prepares  for  one  as  for  the  other 
by  giving  the  intellectual  basis  through  intellectual 
discipline. 

Adhering  to  this  conception,  we  may  remove  from 
consideration  every  scheme  that  would  subordinate 
mental  progress  to  manual  dexterity.  Let  us  afford  op- 
portunity for  the  acquisition  of  mechanical  proficiency, 
but  it  must  be  directed  by  intelligence  ;  otherwise  we 
sacrifice  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  the  second- 
ary school,  the  training  of  the  reasoning  faculties,  the 
awakening  of  a  genuine  desire  for  knowledge  per  se. 

The  idea  of  the  shop,  it  seems  to  me,  should  not 
enter  into  the  plan  of  the  secondary  school ;  lay  the 
foundation,  if  you  will,  for  intellectual  efficiency  and 
skill  in  the  shop ;  the  manual  arts  furnish  the  basis  for 
such  skill,  but  the  differentiation  which  it  is  the  privi- 
lege of  the  secondary  school  course  to  create,  rests  upon 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF    THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      223 

the  connection  established  between  manual  dexterity 
and  an  intellectual  organization  of  the  work  in  which 
the  scientific  attitude  plays  a  vital  role. 

It  seems  undesirable  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
present  author  for  the  secondary  school  to  divest  itself 
of  its  cultural  socializing  tendency ;  the  frankly  voca- 
tional aim  should  be  met  in  communities  that  need  it, 
that  worship  it,  by  the  organization  of  separate  voca- 
tional schools.  Definiteness  in  aim  is  what  our  school 
systems  need ;  vacillation,  uncertainty  in  educational 
policy,  deprives  our  work  of  its  compelling  force.  We 
can  maintain  a  definite  aim,  and  exercise  withal  consid- 
erable latitude  in  its  application,  but  on  the  main  issue 
we  must  stand  firm ;  in  the  enlargement  of  the  mental 
horizon,  the  stimulation  of  intellectual  preferences  and 
moral  responsiveness,  the  privilege  of  the  secondary 
school  lies;  this  is  its  object  —  all  other  results  to  be 
attained  while  this  central  aim  is  before  our  vision,  are 
incidental  to  it  —  the  successful  entrance  into  college,  or 
into  immediate  vocational  activity.  To  revert  once 
more  to  Lord  Kelvin's  statement  of  the  purpose  of 
higher  education,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  juxtaposition 
does  not  imply  equality;  "to  make  life  worth  living" 
constitutes  the  mission  of  higher  education,  but  to  its 
complete  realization  it  is  necessary  that  man  shall  have 
wherewith  to  live,  i.e.  be  enabled  by  his  education  to 
earn  a  livelihood. 


224  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Assuming,  then,  that  a  broadening  of  intellectual  rela- 
tions is  fundamental  to  secondary  school  work,  we  are 
confronted  with  the  question,  Will  any  and  every  sub- 
ject indiscriminately  and  in  equal  degree  answer  this 
need  ?  The  natural  answer  to  this  query  would  be,  cer- 
tainly not.  The  majority  report  of  the  Committee  of 
Ten,  by  the  weight  of  its  authority,  has  given  currency 
to  a  contrary  opinion.  It  says  (p.  33):  "On  the  theory 
that  all  the  subjects  are  to  be  considered  equivalent  in 
educational  rank  for  the  purposes  of  admission  to  col- 
lege, it  would  make  no  difference  which  subjects  he  had 
chosen  from  the  program  —  he  would  have  had  four 
years  of  strong  and  effective  mental  training." 

It  is  apparent  from  this  statement  that  the  evaluation 
of  the  subjects  in  the  curriculum  is  reduced  to  a 
mechanical  formula ;  its  percentage  of  value  in  the 
educational  scheme  is  supposed  to  correspond  to  the 
percentage  of  time  devoted  to  it  in  the  course.  A  pro- 
test against  this  point  of  view  by  a  minority  of  the 
committee  (President  Baker)  was  recorded  at  the  time, 
but  produced  Uttle  or  no  impression.  (Report  Com- 
mittee of  Ten,  pp.  56-58)  "I  cannot  indorse  expressions 
that  appear  to  sanction  the  idea  that  the  choice  of  sub- 
jects may  be  a  matter  of  comparative  indifference.  .  .  . 
All  such  statements  are  based  upon  the  theory  that, 
for  purposes  of  general  education,  one  study  is  as  good 
as  another  —  a  theory  which  makes  education  formal  and 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY   OF   THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL      225 

does  not  consider  the  nature  and  value  of  the  con- 
tent," etc. 

The  contention  of  the  majority  represents  a  first,  but 
extremely  crude,  plan  of  standardizing  the  contents  of 
the  curriculum ;  if  it  had  been  announced  as  merely 
tentative,  it  might  have  gained  ^^acceptance  as  a  measure 
ad  interim  until  further  consideration  had  led  to  a 
sounder  basis  of  evaluation.  Proclaimed,  however,  as  a 
definite  guiding  principle,  it  is  false,  subversive  of 
sound  educational  creed. 

Let  us  examine  the  logic  of  this  doctrine.  If  five 
periods  per  week  through  four  years  are  devoted  to 
Latin,  and  one  year  of  five  periods  to  physics,  is  Latin 
to  be  rated  at  four  times  the  educational  value  of 
physics }  But  assume  that  physics  is  undertaken  in 
the  last  year  of  the  course,  how  much  of  the  first  three 
years*  intellectual  gain  from  the  Latin,  in  method  of 
acquirement  and  general  maturity,  helps  to  make  the 
content  of  the  physics  course  an  experience  of  rel- 
atively high  value,  though  it  has  been  pursued  for  but 
a  single  year }  Or  again,  if  the  last  of  three  years  in 
Greek  opens  to  the  mind  of  the  student  the  first  real 
taste  of  Greek  Hterary  spirit  in  the  revelation  of  the 
Homeric  world  (which  even  a  dry-as-dust  could  not 
completely  rob  of  its  charm),  does  this  year  really 
measure  just  one  third  of  the  educational  value  of  ele- 
mentary Greek  .■'  Or  is  it  not  rather  true  that  all 
Q 


226  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

numerical  valuation  is  at  fault,  that  the  gain  to  the 
student  in  this  last  year,  though  it  cannot  be  secured 
without  the  previous  foundation  work,  is  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  previous  attainment?  Suppose  once 
more  that  the  high  school  course  is  so  constituted  that 
but  two  of  five  periods  per  week  can  be  assigned  to 
history :  will  the  educational  value  of  this  subject  be 
identical,  whether  these  two  years  are  grouped  at  the 
beginning  or  at  the  end  of  the  high  school  course  ? 

An  adjustment  by  percentages  of  time  allotment  omits 
furthermore  from  consideration  the  individuality  of  the 
teacher :  a  subject  which  is  not  ordinarily  accepted  as 
of  vital  interest  may  transcend,  because  of  the  stimulus 
of  an  enthusiastic  teacher,  other  subjects  that  are 
ordinarily  presumed  to  be  of  greater  value,  and  may  by  a 
process  of  reflex  interest  prove  the  only  means  of  awak- 
ening appreciation  for  the  general  aims  of  the  second- 
ary school.  The  cases  are  not  infrequent  in  which  a 
teacher  of  distinctly  original  mind  transfuses  a  subject 
that  has  been  considered  dull  and  unattractive  in  its 
earlier  stages,  and  transforms  into  ardent  workers  those 
who  seemed  hopelessly  apathetic  ;  the  magic  touch  of  a 
teacher's  personality  has  frequently  aroused  linguistic 
or  mathematical  tastes,  where  the  pupil's  native  apti- 
tudes have  not  been  sufficiently  marked  as  a  moving 
impulse.  The  elusive  factor  of  individuality  can,  of 
course,  not  guide  us  in  determining  the  significance  we 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE   SECONDARY    SCHOOL      227 

are  to  attach  to  certain  subjects  in  the  curriculum,  for 
we  must  shape  our  calculations  by  average,  not  excep- 
tional, teaching  faculty ;  by  standards,  not  by  the  for- 
tuitous presence  of  a  teaching  genius.  It  would  be  as 
unwise  to  adopt  the  purely  mechanical  standard  of  time 
relation  as  to  substitute  for  it  the  vague  standard  of 
personal  interest ;  to  make  that  the  central  subject  of  a 
school's  interest  which  is  best  taught  in  it,  is  to  banish 
system. 

It  will  be  well,  then,  to  abandon  every  attempt  to 
express  in  specific  terms  of  percentage  the  value  of  the 
several  subjects.  Does,  or  does  not,  a  subject  contribute 
in  its  presentation  to  an  enlargement  of  intellectual  out- 
look .''  On  the  answer  to  that  question  hinges  its  educa- 
tional value.  It  would  mean  the  exclusion  of  subjects 
that  contribute  nothing  to  intellectual  breadth,  that  are 
valuable  only  as  technique.  To  this  category  we  should 
unhesitatingly  assign  stenography  and  typewriting  ;  it 
is  not  because  they  lead  to  immediate  pecuniary  advan- 
tage that  we  would  exclude  them,  but  because  they  fur- 
nish little  or  no  intellectual  stimulus.  There  are  other 
subjects  of  the  secondary  curriculum  in  behalf  of  which 
emphasis  is  laid  upon  their  practical  utility,  the  subjects 
in  the  domestic  science  and  art  departments,  bookkeep- 
ing, commercial  law,  drawing,  manual  arts,  but  each  one 
of  them  can  and  should  be  vitalized  beyond  the  rule-of- 
thumb  application  by  the  series  of  intellectual  concepts 


228  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

that  underlie.  Such  concepts  may  disappear  momen- 
tarily in  practice,  but  once  evolved  they  may  be  appealed 
to  at  any  moment  toward  the  reconstruction  of  prin- 
ciples. 

Herein  seems  to  lie  a  safe  criterion  for  the  subjects 
in  the  secondary  school  curriculum,  and  a  directive  for 
the  spirit  in  which  their  presentation  should  be  con- 
ceived; we  may  train  the  capacity  to  utilize  them,  we 
must  make  them  the  means  of  enlarging  intellectual 
sympathies ;  Latin  or  EngHsh  mechanically  taught  are 
in  this  aspect  as  sterile  in  educational  value  as  the  ma- 
nipulations of  the  shop  that  are  purely  digital  perform- 
ances. 

If  our  high  school  teaching  of  Latin  or  French  or 
mathematics  [were  to  create  merely  manipulators  of  the 
materials  furnished  in  those  subjects,  of  vocabularies, 
grammatical  forms,  of  accurately  memorized  definitions 
and  theorems,  there  would  be  Httle  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  these  subjects  as  fosterers  of  expanding  intellectual 
interests ;  if  it  does  not  succeed  in  arousing  distinct 
pleasure,  the  joy  of  the  enlarged  vision,  the  new  mental 
experience,  and  the  growing  capacity  to  incorporate 
new  groups  of  interest  with  previous  acquisition,  it  fails 
in  creating  educational  values.^  Of  the  existence  of 
these  values  in  the  subjects  that  have  been  previously 
named  as  constants,  no  sensible  man  entertains  a  doubt ; 

1  D.  E.  Smith,  Teaching  of  Geotnetry,  p.  26. 


EDUCATIONAL   POLICY    OF   THE    SECONDARY   SCHOOL      229 

in  making   them   educationally  potent,  must  be  mani- 
fested the  power  of  the  teacher. 

The  pages  of  Shakespeare,  Homer,  Moliere,  Euclid,  may 
be  but  dead  repositories  of  the  unparalleled  achievements 
of  the  world's  great  intellects,  and  the  pupil  may  garner 
no  thought  from  the  printed  page  that  reproduces  their 
contributions  to  the  light  of  the  world ;  it  is  the  teacher 
whose  own  insight  interprets  their  significance,  whose 
living  response  to  their  influence  is  kindled  to  enthusiasm 
in  the  ambition  to  arouse  a  kindred  response  in  his 
pupils.  At  times  a  rare  soul  among  adolescents  may 
feel  this  inspiration  without  the  mediation  of  a  teacher, 
but  that  would  always  be  an  exception,  and  it  is  the 
province  and  privilege  of  the  teacher  to  create  the 
atmosphere  in  which  knowledge  and  appreciation  grow 
and  thrive ;  even  the  open  page  of  nature,  in  the  organic 
and  inorganic  world,  discloses  the  secret  of  its  complex- 
ities most  readily  under  the  furthering  guidance  of  the 
teacher ;  his  living  interest  enlivens  by  personal  experi- 
ence the  formalism  of  the  textbook.  The  school,  the 
secondary  school  above  all,  calls  for  the  personal  touch  of 
the  teacher  ;  the  awakening  of  the  adolescent  soul  needs 
the  Hve  teacher,  with  the  textbook  as  an  humble  sub- 
sidiary. 


EXCURSUS   I 

The  Continuation  School 

It  is  worth  our  while  carefully  to  examine  successful 
systems  of  vocational  schools,  before  we  commit  our- 
selves to  a  transformation  of  our  secondary  schools  into 
this  new  type  of  schools.  The  continuation  schools  of 
Germany,  and  especially  those  of  Munich, ^  that  have 
attracted  general  attention  by  definiteness  of  organiza- 
tion, represent  schools  of  the  vocational  type  ;  they  aim 
to  promote  the  efficiency  of  apprentices  in  the  various 
crafts  and  occupations  that  are  practiced  in  Munich ; 
between  forty  and  fifty  different  types  of  industrial 
effort  are  provided  for,  each  by  one  or  several  schools 
specially  equipped  in  teachers  and  mechanical  outfit  to 
serve  its  specific  ends.  The  professed  purpose  of  each  one 
of  these  schools  is  to  furnish  skilled  labor  and  intelhgent 
direction  in  a  particular  industry  or  trade,  with  a  fixed 
course  of  study  appropriate  to  its  special  needs.  The 
name  mono-technical  schools,  sometimes  applied  to  them, 
indicates  their  very  specific  character.  These  schools 
are  independent  of  the  general  school  system,  and  serve 

1  Kerschensteiner,  in  Bulletin  N'o.  14.  of  National  Association  for  the 
Promotion  of  Industrial  Education. 

230 


THE   CONTINUATION   SCHOOL  231 

entirely  different  ends  ;  to  their  pupils  who  have  already 
chosen  a  vocation  or  trade  they  give  an  opportunity  by 
the  creation  of  intelligent  interest  to  rise  from  unfavor- 
able economic  conditions  to  the  more  remunerative 
rewards  that  attend  upon  skill  and  technical  initiative. 

They  are  reared  upon  the  substructure  of  the  elemen- 
tary school,  some  of  whose  subjects  they  find  themselves 
compelled  to  repeat  and  modify,  but  they  are  differentiated 
sharply  from  the  usual  type  of  secondary  instruction,  in 
that  the  relation  of  all  instruction  to  the  requirements 
of  industrial  life  is  exclusively  kept  in  view.  This  totally 
different  character  between  the  vocational  and  the 
normal  secondary  school  cannot  be  more  impressively 
illustrated  than  by  this  one  fact,  the  assignment  of  con- 
trol of  the  two  types  of  schools  to  entirely  different 
administrative  bodies;  thus,  in  Prussia  {vide  Report 
Commissioner  of  Education,  1910,  I,  301-343)  the  con- 
tinuation schools  are  under  the  direction  of  the  ministry 
of  commerce  and  industry,  and  not  under  the  control 
of  the  ministry  of  education,  and  it  has  become  neces- 
sary to  organize  within  the  department  of  commerce 
and  industry  an  educational  department  siti  generis. 

In  recent  discussions  on  changes  in  the  secondary 
curriculum  there  has  been  evident  a  tendency  to  conceive 
of  the  high  school  with  a  vocational  trend  as  a  continu- 
ation school.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place,  therefore,  to 
show  at  this  point  why  no  existing  or  contemplated  form 


232  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

of  continuation  school  should  be  classed  as  a  secondary 
school.^ 

The  ages  of  the  young  people  whom  it  is  intended  to 
benefit  are  usually  those  of  pupils  in  attendance  at  the 
secondary  schools,  but  they  have  either  failed  to  com- 
plete the  elementary  school  at  the  age  when  they  are 
permitted  by  the  law  to  turn  to  a  vocation,  or  else,  hav- 
ing completed  it,  have  at  the  moment  no  desire  or  no 
capacity  to  carry  on  studies  of  a  more  advanced  character 
except  in  so  far  as  they  stand  in  direct  relation  to  their 
vocational  careers.  In  both  cases  the  intellectual  equip- 
ment they  have  acquired  is  insufficient,  unless  it  is 
augmented,  to  prevent  the  majority  from  sinking  to 
the  level  of  the  untrained  laborer  whose  chances  of 
growth  and  advancement  are  of  the  slightest. 

The  commonwealth  that  recognizes  the  economic  needs 
of  these  young  people  cannot  rest  content  with  the  edu- 
cational opportunities  they  have  hitherto  enjoyed ;  the 
prospect  of  its  own  economic  welfare  must  impel  to 
renewed  effort  to  promote  the  vocational  efficiency  of 
its  youth.  A  new  standpoint  is  reached  when  the  boy 
or  girl  realizes  that  increasing  remuneration  is  directly 
contingent  on  intellectual  power  or  vocational  ability, 
and  a  new  impulse  toward  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
arises;  a  modified  scheme  of  instruction  must  utilize 
this  impulse  for  the  good  of  the  community  and  the 

1  English  special  Reports,  I,  479-510,  585  ff. 


THE    CONTINUATION   SCHOOL  233 

individual.  This  kind  of  instruction  must  frankly  ad- 
just itself  to  the  recognized  wants  of  the  adolescent ; 
the  new  type  of  school  can  only  make  its  influence  felt 
by  giving  him  what  he  recognizes  as  his  need,  rather 
than  by  upholding  an  inflexible  standard  and  sequence 
in  subject  matter;  in  a  word,  the  continuation  school 
must  come  to  the  pupil,  rather  than  the  pupil  to  the  con- 
tinuation school. 

We  have  been  slower  to  recognize  this  change  in 
obligation  than  other  civilized  countries,  and  must 
now  strive  to  recover  ground.  We  have  been  so  im- 
pressed with  the  great  boon  of  our  free  educational 
offer  in  elementary  and  secondary  schools,  apparently 
so  much  more  extensive  than  is  offered  elsewhere,  that 
we  have  stopped  short.  "  Here  is  your  great  opportu- 
nity," we  say  ;  "  avail  yourselves  of  it,  as  we  offer  it;  if 
you  cannot  attend  the  secondary  day  school,  because  of 
economic  pressure,  we  extend  to  you  identical  courses  in 
the  evening  high  school ;  if  you  fail  to  seize  upon  the 
opportunity,  that  is  your  fault,  not  ours,  and  our  obliga- 
tion has  come  to  an  end." 

Not  so  —  our  moral  obligation  extends  further;  our 
public  evening  schools,  in  so  far  as  they  are  substan- 
tially duplications  of  our  day  schools,  diluted  often  by 
the  enfeebled  activity  of  tired  day-school  teachers,  have 
proved  more  or  less  failures  ;  we  have  not  realized  that  as 
their  problems  are  much  more  complex,  so  their  oppor- 


234  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

tunities  for  the  moral  and  intellectual  uplift  of  great 
masses  are  unique.  We  have  left  it  to  private  and 
semi-private  enterprises,  like  the  Y.M.C.A.,  to  enter 
the  field  in  which  the  public  schools  have  been  inade- 
quate. In  an  article  in  the  Educational  Review,  23, 
281-303,  President  Pritchett,  then  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  pointed  out  the  remissness  of 
our  great  American  cities  in  this  matter,  "  The  signifi- 
cant feature  of  the  contrast  (between  Boston  and  Ber- 
lin) is  the  fact  that  the  one  city  presents  a  system  of 
public  education  founded  upon  no  effort  to  study  the 
conditions  which  are  to  be  met  and  to  meet  them,  while 
in  the  other  there  is  presented  a  plan  which  is  at  least 
consistent,  which  rests  upon  an  intelligent  study  of  the 
whole  question  of  education  of  the  people,  and  which 
aims  to  meet  in  a  rational  way  the  varying  wants  of  all 
classes  "  (p.  295). 

Obviously  we  have  but  faintly  grasped  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  problem,  and  in  consequence  our  efforts 
at  remedy  have  been  halting.  It  is  not  likely  that  we 
shall  ever  be  enabled  to  enforce  by  legislative  enact- 
ment compulsory  attendance  in  the  continuation  schools, 
as  Germany  has  done  it  for  young  people  to  the  age  of 
eighteen ;  we  cannot  penalize  parents,  children,  and  em- 
ployers who  fail  to  comply  with  the  law.  Nor  is  it  de- 
sirable. On  the  value  of  compulsory  attendance  there 
is  even  in  Germany  a  difference  of  opinion ;  Dr.  Bert- 


THE    CONTINUATION   SCHOOL  235 

ram,  the  great  organizer  of  the  continuation  schools  of 
Berlin,  says:  (English  Special  Reports,  9,  452):  "In 
cases  where  it  is  not  possible  to  introduce  the  real  con- 
tinuation school  the  obligatory  continuation  school  must 
be  accepted  as  a  makeshift.  But  it  is  not  the  ideal  of 
the  continuation  school.  ...  A  lasting  effort  towards 
further  development  can  only  be  secured  through  in- 
creasing knowledge,  through  a  growing  independent 
exertion  of  the  will,  through  the  oft-repeated  experience 
that  knowledge  and  the  ability  to  use  it  profit  a  man 
inwardly  and  materially." 

He  further  intimates  that  the  secret  of  their  success 
must  center  in  their  obvious  utility  to  the  adolescent 
student.  "  Fortunately  the  continuation  schools  have 
maintained  till  now  such  flexibility  that  curriculum  and 
standard  of  instruction  are  not  determined  by  State 
regulation,  but  by  the  needs  of  the  students  attending 
the  classes,"  and  "  Each  school  has  a  governing  body, 
consisting  of  men  of  very  different  callings,  whose  spe- 
cial office  it  is  to  see  that  the  instruction  is  well  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  pupils,  and  supported  by  good 
equipment." 

Our  appeal  must  be  made  on  other  grounds,  on  those 
of  self-advancement,  self-interest ;  the  adolescent  may 
come  to  realize  how  necessary  for  greater  efficiency  is 
an  appreciation  of  the  reasons  for  doing  thus  and  not 
otherwise,  of  what  new  significance  it  is  to  his  effective- 


236  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

ness  as  a  member  of  the  social  organism  to  recapitulate, 
reenforce,  and  utilize  the  knowledge  of  the  common 
school. 

The  cause  of  the  continuation  school  has  found  no 
more  intelligent  allies  than  in  the  employers  —  both  in- 
dividuals and  corporations;  they  have  often  proved  more 
farsighted,  more  helpful,  than  the  municipal  authorities, 
in  promoting  the  life  interests  of  the  young  citizen. 

It  is  due  to  their  intelligent  cooperation  that  two  dis- 
tinct types  of  continuation  schools  have  been  initiated 
with  us  as  in  European  countries,  ( i )  that  of  the  gen- 
eral continuation  school  which  with  its  repetition  of 
elementary  school  subjects  combines  applications  of 
them  to  practical  work,  without,  however,  direct  rela- 
tion to  any  particular  trade  (General  Continuation 
Schools),  and  (2)  that  of  the  specialized  vocational  school 
adapted  to  the  promotion  of  efficiency  in  the  occupa- 
tion or  trade  in  which  the  adolescent  is  already  engaged. 

The  many  possibilities  of  these  general  continuation 
schools  deserve  special  notice.  Whatever  his  future 
calling  may  be,  there  are  many  general  qualifications  in 
which  the  youth  should  excel  and  for  which  the  regular 
school  affords  him  no  help;  to  compose  business  letters 
properly,  to  draw  up  contracts,  to  advertise  effectively, 
to  utilize  drawing  as  a  means  of  setting  forth  one's 
structural  intentions  (by  sketch  or  draft),  to  understand 
industrial   appliances   and    products,    their   relation   to 


THE   CONTINUATION   SCHOOL  237 

crude  material,  to  machinery,  their  transportation  ;  these 
may  all  be  furthered  by  lessons  on  the  general  nature 
of  business  occupations  and  industries.  It  is  in  these 
nontechnical  courses  particularly  that  one  may  combat 
successfully  the  narrowness  of  specialized  factory  work ; 
the  general  intelHgence  and  interest  they  arouse  may 
serve  more  than  even  manual  dexterity  in  any  one 
chosen  field  to  develop  personality;  the  light  thrown 
upon  these  general  topics  by  a  survey  of  history,  ge- 
ography, and  science  gives  to  these  subjects  in  turn  a 
meaning  that  is  usually  not  patent  to  the  student  in  the 
elementary  school. 

Incidental  to  instruction  in  both  types  of  continuation 
schools  is  the  further  opportunity  to  develop  the  civic 
training  of  our  young  people;  they  all  require  an 
awakening  to  civic  efficiency,  whether  their  school  life 
terminates  with  the  elementary  school,  or  is  continued 
into  the  high  school.  And  it  should  be  understood  that 
appreciation  of  civic  obligations  requires  a  degree  of 
mental  maturity  which  the  student  in  the  elementary 
school  does  not  possess.  The  civics  course  of  the 
elementary  school  has  little  substantial  value ;  knowl- 
edge of  civic  organization,  as  conveyed  by  the  textbook, 
contributes  but  little  to  an  arousing  of  civic  responsi- 
bilities. 

This  phase  of  the  continuation  school  has  been  as- 
signed  great  weight  in  the  Munich  Continuation  System; 


238  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Dr.  Kerschensteiner^  insists  on  grouping  even  with 
the  strictly  vocational  teaching  a  type  of  instruction 
in  the  vernacular  and  in  history  and  civics  which  creates 
and  strengthens  a  strong  national  feeling.  "  By  giving 
one  hour  per  week  for  three  or  four  years  to  this  in- 
struction, we  manage  to  get  most  of  our  pupils  to  under- 
stand the  functions  of  our  economic,  social,  and  political 
institutions,  .  .  .  They  .  .  .  learn  the  truth  of  the 
maxim  that  the  meaning  of  life  is  not  to  rule,  but  to 
render  service,  .  .  .  service  to  one's  native  country,  ser- 
vice to  truth  and  justice." 

It  is  the  great  privilege  of  the  continuation  schools 
that  they  can  make  their  appeal  on  a  new  and  most 
effective  basis,  that  of  personal  advantage.  The  value 
of  usable  information,  of  technical  efficiency,  has  become 
apparent  to  these  young  people;  what  though  no  higher 
motive  than  self-interest  prompts  at  first  to  the  desire 
to  know  and  to  do  ?  We  know  that  the  purely  utilitarian 
conception  will  unconsciously  expand  beyond  its  im- 
mediate narrowing  outlook,  that  the  limited  initiation 
into  theory  which  is  necessary  both  as  discipline  and 
training  for  the  realization  of  practical  results,  opens  up 
new  vistas  to  minds  previously  impervious  to  such  in- 
fluences. 

1  Kerschensteiner,  "  The  Trade  Continuation  Schools  of  Munich," 
Bulletin  No.  14,  of  National  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial 
Education,  p.  15. 


THE    CONTINUATION   SCHOOL  239 

To  arouse  thought  in  the  worker  is  the  professed  aim  of 
the  continuation  school ;  it  will  be  by  different  methods  of 
approach  than  the  more  deliberate  advance  of  the  sec- 
ondary school  sanctions;  in  a  sense,  however,  the  con- 
tinuation school,  with  its  specific  opportunities,  makes 
for  a  liberalizing  of  the  purely  vocational  pursuits  of 
the  large  adolescent  community. 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  continuation  school 
that  merits  more  attention  than  it  has  hitherto  received. 
We  have  developed  our  school  systems  on  the  assump- 
tion that  successful  advance  is  based  on  the  direct  prog- 
ress from  one  stage  to  the  other.  The  elementary  pupil 
must  move  directly  on  to  the  secondary  school ;  if  he 
leaves  school  to  take  up  a  vocation,  the  system  of  contin- 
uation school  provides,  or  should  provide,  for  an  im- 
mediate continuance  (by  recapitulation  or  modified 
course)  in  some  kind  of  mental  effort.  Continuity  in 
intellectual  effort  has  much  in  its  favor ;  it  is  therefore 
made  compulsory  in  states  like  Germany,  for  the  young 
people  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age.  But  is 
it  not  conceivable  that  an  arrest  in  mental  interest  and 
capacity,  a  kind  of  intellectual  torpor,  may  set  in  at  a 
given  stage,  and  that  after  a  number  of  years  there  may 
be  a  reawakening,  a  craving  for  intellectual  opportu- 
nity, for  which  no  systematized  provision  exists  in  our 
educational  scheme  ?  Individual  cases  of  this  kind  are 
familiar  to  all,  familiar,  too,  the  greatness  of  personal 


240  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

sacrifice  that  is  made  by  some  adults  to  secure  belated 
educational  opportunities. 

Whether  with  us  such  cases  exist  in  sufficient  num- 
bers to  give  rise  to  an  appreciable  educational  problem, 
let  the  reader  judge.  Denmark  certainly  has  recognized 
its  existence  and  has  met  it  by  a  very  characteristic  edu- 
cational advice  (the  Folkehojskoler,  or  Peasant  High 
Schools).  After  the  completion  of  the  primary  studies, 
peasant  boy  and  girl  turn  to  manual  labor,  their  minds 
unable  or  reluctant  to  accept  immediately  further  in- 
struction in  the  voluntary  evening  continuation  schools. 
After  a  number  of  years  spent  in  manual  labor  the 
genuine  desire  to  acquire  information  reappears,  and  like 
a  field  that  has  been  improved  by  lying  fallow,  the  young 
people  manifest  the  ability  to  digest  and  fully  appropriate 
the  knowledge  that  they  desire  to  gain ;  accustomed  to 
hard  physical  work,  their  minds  show  unusual  vigor  and 
freshness.  The  recognition  of  this  fact  by  some  ideal 
Danish  teachers  has  led  to  the  establishment  of  some 
eighty  adult  boarding  schools.  A  minimum  of  outlay  is 
involved  that  is  within  the  reach  of  all,  as  stipends  exist  for 
those  who  have  not  secured  the  means  by  their  own  labor. 
The  young  people  are,  during  a  short  six  months'  coul-se, 
under  the  influence,  mental  and  moral,  of  an  exceptional 
body  of  teachers ;  their  studies,  besides  agricultural  pur- 
suits and  manual  training,  embrace  attainments  in  their 
vernacular,  history  which  is  of  a  cultural  rather  than 


THE    CONTINUATION   SCHOOL  24 1 

political  kind,  intended  to  strengthen  the  national  feel- 
ing; some  natural  science,  elementary  mathematics,  a 
modern  language  (English),  and  folk  singing. 

The  students  return  after  the  temporary  withdrawal 
from  lucrative  work  to  their  occupations  with  a  new  view 
of  life ;  they  infuse  new  energy,  new  understanding  into 
their  work ;  beyond  the  industrial  betterment  that  these 
schools  stand  for  and  that  has  revolutionized  the  agri- 
cultural prosperity  of  Denmark,  their  influence  has  been 
felt  in  the  spiritual  uplift  of  the  whole  country,  and  their 
methods  have  been  adopted  in  other  Scandinavian 
centers,  even  in  America,  Similar  in  some  respects  to 
university  extension  courses,  these  courses  attain  their 
results  without  the  familiar  expedients  of  control  that 
we  associate  with  teaching  courses,  e.g.  examinations; 
the  stimulus  to  attainment  inheres  in  the  desire  and 
ambition  of  the  individual  student.^ 

The  educational  effort  in  behalf  of  the  adult  may  re- 
pay the  commonwealth  at  least  as  well  as  our  current 
scheme  of  continuous  educational  advance  ;  modest  be- 
ginnings in  farmers'  courses  at  our  agricultural  colleges 
point  the  way  to  further  developments. 

1  J.  S.  Thornton,  E7tglish  Special  Reports,  I,  585-612,  and  vol.  17, 
pp.  105-129.  Cf.  Sadler,  Continuation  Schools  in  England  and  Elsewhere, 
Manchester,  1907  (with  bibliography),  pp.  483-512. 


EXCURSUS   II 

The  Function  of  the  Educational  Expert,  with 
AN  Analysis  of  Sadler's  Reports  on  the  Sec- 
ondary School  Systems  of  Liverpool,  Sheffield, 
Birkenhead,  Newcastle,  Derbyshire,  Essex, 
Exeter,  Hampshire.     1903-1906 

The  remarkable  series  of  reports  enumerated  above 
bears  evidence  to  the  awakening  of  intelligent  public 
sentiment  in  England  on  the  status  and  needs  of  second- 
ary school  education.  These  communities  appealed 
between  the  years  1903  and  1906  to  Sir  Michael  Sadler, 
asking  him,  first,  to  study  and  criticize  their  existing 
provisions  for  secondary  education,  and  second,  to  offer 
remedial  suggestions  for  their  improvement.  The  Re- 
ports are  in  a  sense  the  fruitage  of  his  prolonged  critical 
study  as  Director  of  Special  Inquiries  on  educational 
processes  in  England  and  its  colonies,  on  the  European 
continent,  and  in  the  United  States.  Starting  out  from 
unbiased  and  discerning  observation  of  educational 
tendencies  in  the  several  countries,  and  of  the  social 
and  political  environments  that  stimulate,  constrain,  or 
direct  their  various  educative  agencies,  ^  he  formulated 

»  English  special  Reports,  I-XI. 
242 


FUNCTION   OF    THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  243 

in  1901  in  the  essay  (English  Special  Reports,  IX,  1-192) 
"  The  unrest  in  secondary  education  in  Germany  and 
elsewhere  "  in  a  comparative  study  a  philosophical  sum- 
mary of  the  present  situation,  pointed  out  essential  simi- 
larity in  outwardly  dissimilar  phenomena,  and  on  the 
basis  of  inevitable  changes,  industrial  and  social,  in  the 
dominant  intellectual  nations,  forecast  the  current  of 
educational  movements  in  each  of  them. 

The  political  changes  in  England  that  severed 
shortly  afterwards  Sadler's  connection  with  the  English 
Board  of  Education,  found  him  prepared  for  the  con- 
structive educational  statesmanship  of  the  following 
years,  for  the  transference  into  practical  suggestions 
of  the  accumulated  thought  that  had  been  ripening 
through  years  of  observation  and  analysis.  He  had 
emphasized  the  fact  that  the  day  of  isolated  tendencies 
in  education  has  passed,  that  every  nation  is  affected 
by  movements  whose  origins  may  be  traced  among 
alien  peoples ;  that  not  only  the  shadowy  past,  but 
contemporaneous  strivings,  contribute  to  the  history 
of  all  progress ;  that  whilst  individualism  has  its  merits, 
its  defects  are  perilous  if  they  prompt  us  to  ignore 
the  strivings  and  the  conclusions  of  our  neighbors  and 
to  remain  obdurate  in  our  own  convictions,  until  the 
overwhelming  evidence  of  wasted  and  misdirected  effort 
compels  us  to  remodel  opinion  which  but  for  our  willful 
blindness  might  at  an  earlier  day  have  been  recast. 


244  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

His  contentions,  at  once  temperate  and  incisive,  aroused 
one  municipality  after  the  other  to  institute  a  domiciUary 
investigation  of  its  educational  facilities  in  the  secondary 
field  ;  he  was  invited  to  make  an  exhaustive  investigation 
as  professional  expert  of  its  condition,  and  report  on  it. 
The  resolution  of  Exeter  (p.  i)  ^  is  a  good  type  of  the 
procedure  out  of  which  these  inquiries  grew. 

If  readiness  to  know  our  shortcomings,  to  accept  gra- 
ciously a  truthful  exposure  of  our  conditions,  to  submit  to 
an  unsparing  professional  estimate  of  our  necessities,  to 
publish  these  criticisms,  whether  appreciative  or  admoni- 
tory, for  our  own  benefit  and  that  of  our  fellows,  be  the  nec- 
essary forerunner  of  reforms,  then  these  communities  have 
by  their  actions  set  a  notable  example  of  loyalty  to  the 
higher  interests  of  their  commonwealths.  Valuable  are 
these  reports,  but  greater  still  and  particularly  instructive 
to  us  Americans  is  the  communal  spirit  that  has  called 
them  into  being ;  the  publication  of  each  report, 
authorized  and  paid  for  by  the  municipal  councils,  is  a 
warrant  of  the  civic  responsiveness  that  is  beyond  petty 

1  "  That  in  order  to  insure  a  complete  system  of  education  in  the 
City  of  Exeter,  it  is  desirable  that  a  return  should  now  be  obtained  of 
all  those  institutions  and  schools,  whether  public  or  private,  which  are 
giving  Secondary  Education,  and  that  an  expert  opinion  should  be 
obtained  as  to  the  best  manner  of  coordinating  and  developing  the 
work  of  both  Primary  and  Secondary  schools,  so  as  to  avoid  waste  of 
effort,  money,  etc.,  and  of  supplying  such  further  educational  facilities 
as  the  City  may  be  considered  to  require." 


FUNCTION   OF   THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  245 

conceit,  beyond  so-called  local  pride,  that  is  intent  on 
learning  the  truth,  however  painful,  that  is  submissive 
to  the  crucial  analysis  of  the  trained  observer,  and  is 
convinced  that  in  great  educational  problems  the  vagaries 
of  the  well-intentioned  amateur  must  make  way  for  the 
balanced  judgment  of  the  expert ;  if  the  amateurish 
spirit  still  holds  in  England,  those  who  have  authorized 
these  investigations  cannot  be  charged  with  it. 

It  is  of  unusual  significance,  furthermore,  that  in  each 
municipality  (or  county)  all  educational  enterprises, 
pubUc  and  private,  have  voluntarily  cooperated  to  make 
the  inquiry  a  complete  one ;  they  have  submitted  their 
institutions  as  to  organization,  financial  basis,  and  actual 
performance  to  the  probe  of  the  investigator.  Does 
this  not  point  to  an  honesty  of  endeavor,  a  conviction  of 
reasonable  effort,  even  within  limited  and  inadequate  con- 
ditions, that  promises  well  for  the  regenerative  process  ? 
We  may,  of  course,  say  that  self-interest  dictated  this 
frank  acceptance  of  criticism,  for  England  has  been 
rudely  awakened  to  a  realization  of  its  educational  short- 
comings ;  yet  we  cannot  but  admire  the  manly  response 
which  does  not  try  to  befog,  to  belie  itself.  And  how 
commendable,  how  soundly  conservative,  is  the  method 
pursued  !  When  the  great  gap  in  the  educational  system 
is  realized,  these  communities  do  not  clamor  tumultuously 
for  change  that  may  mean  discomfiture ;  they  invite  a 
searching  inquiry  from  one  who  never  overthrows  what 


246  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

is  worth  preserving,  but  who  centers  attention  upon  the 
mode  of  evolving  the  new  ideals,  through  existing  oppor- 
tunities, if  possible,  through  the  creation  of  new  institu- 
tions, if  the  demands  of  progress  can  be  met  in  no  other 
way.  To  an  American  student  of  educational  problems 
this  attitude  of  the  commonwealth  and  of  the  teaching 
community  is  so  striking  that  it  cannot  be  overempha- 
sized. 

That  the  influence  of  these  reports  does  not  termi- 
nate with  the  investigation  proper  and  the  dissemination 
of  the  results  through  publication  may  be  taken  for 
granted.  A  commonwealth  that  has  apphed  for  reme- 
dies has  practically  indicated  its  willingness  to  utiUze 
them  ;  municipalities  cannot,  however,  in  a  day,  and  by 
decree,  bring  into  realization  changes  of  a  far-reaching 
nature.  Reforms  work  most  effectively  when  they  are 
deliberately  initiated  ;  we  shall  witness  the  effect  of  these 
reports  in  the  internal  reorganization  of  the  English 
secondary  schools  that  is  now  under  way. 

There  was  realized  by  the  communities  that  invited 
Sadler's  aid,  a  principle,  previously  referred  to.  Clear- 
ness of  vision  on  the  part  of  the  investigator  is  con- 
ditioned upon  his  disinterestedness,  upon  his  remote- 
ness from  merely  local  issues;  the  critic,  the  expert, 
must  stand  outside  of  the  seething  conditions  that  con- 
trol local  preferences  and  prejudices.  No  one  in  an  edu- 
cational system  can  be  as  dispassionate  a  judge  as  the 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERT    247 

one  who  stands  outside  and  above  the  individual  system, 
who  surveys  from  the  tableland  of  a  wide  generalization 
the  needs  and  the  advantages  of  an  individual  community. 
Superficially  there  are  certain  discrepancies  between 
the  several  reports  in  the  order  of  presentation  of  facts, 
these  are,  however,  questions  of  literary  arrangement 
rather  than  indications  of  a  varying  sequence  in  procedure. 
In  a  few  instances  the  reports  (Derbyshire  p.  11)  for- 
mulate at  once  the  general  recommendations,  and  give 
the  detailed  study  of  existing  conditions  of  which  they 
are  the  product,  later  on  ;  in  the  majority  of  cases  this 
constructive  part  is  presented  at  the  close  of  the  report 
as  the  final  outcome.  The  order  of  inquiry,  we  may  be 
sure,  has  been  the  same  in  each  case ;  ( i )  a  dispassionate 
investigation  of  all  the  educational  institutions  in  each 
community,  of  their  effectiveness,  their  equipment  in 
teachers  and  material,  their  relation  to  each  other,  discloses 
the  facilities  available.  It  is  followed  (2)  by  a  study  of  the 
needs  of  the  community,  of  the  relation  that  the  second- 
ary school  system  should  bear  to  its  environment,  to  the 
social  and  industrial  fabric  of  the  city  or  county,  —  an 
inquiry  this  in  educational  philosophy  in  which  the  deduc- 
tions from  an  extensive  and  varied  observational  experi- 
ence guide  and  warn  ;  and  finally,(3)a  series  of  practical 
suggestions  in  which  the  theoretical  requirements  are 
reconciled  to  the  finaticial  exigencies  and  capacities  of 
the  community. 


248  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Attention  should  be  called  to  the  fact  that  the  whole- 
some conservatism  of  Sadler  manifests  itself  nowhere 
more  conspicuously  than  in  his  mastery  of  the  economic 
features  of  the  situation ;  theoretical  reforms  are  likely 
to  prove  barren  suggestions,  if  they  disregard  the 
financial  limitations  of  a  community.  Changes  in 
schools  and  school  systems  always  mean  additional  out- 
lay, but  they  must  not  be  prohibitive,  and  their  advocate 
must  be  able  to  present  convincing  evidence  of  their 
ultimate  economy.  The  lucidity  of  Sadler's  budgets 
appeals  strongly  to  the  lay  mind.  The  diverse  quali- 
fications that  must  be  united  in  the  one  expert  are 
obvious  from  this  brief  analysis;  calm  and  temperate 
critical  observation,  equally  removed  from  indulgent  ac- 
ceptance of  weak  effort  and  from  unsympathetic  fault- 
finding, but  unshrinking  in  the  utterance  of  truth  ;  a 
clear  and  definite  attitude  with  respect  to  the  aim  at 
issue  and  the  means  of  compassing  it,  such  attitude  the 
combined  outcome  of  thought  and  wide  experience; 
and  finally,  with  a  strenuous  advocacy  of  necessary 
reforms,  an  appreciation  of  material  limitations. 

Of  the  three  phases  of  inquiry  the  first  and  third 
naturally  show  the  more  individual  traits,  as  community 
after  community  is  examined ;  the  second  as  the  philo- 
sophic conviction  of  the  investigator  will  have  a  certain 
homogeneousness  in  the  enunciation  of  principles ;  but 
it  is  characteristic  of  these  reports  that  though  destined 


FUNCTION   OF    THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  249 

to  interpret  local  problems,  there  are  interwoven  into 
all  parts  of  their  arguments,  views  of  the  broadest  edu- 
cational insight,  suggesting  application  to  general  issues, 
to  which  even  we  Americans  are  not  strangers. 

The  student  of  these  reports  would  be  guilty  of  a  fatal 
error  if  he  turned  too  hastily  to  the  constructive  part  of 
the  scheme  in  the  Suggestions  a7id  Recommendations  for 
Improvemetit ;  the  genius  of  the  author,  his  educational 
creed,  is  quite  as  manifest  in  the  chapters  that  contain 
a  survey  of  existing  institutions,  and  in  those  that  deal 
with  the  causes  of  weakness  that  his  probe  has  reached. 
There  is  something  inspiring  in  the  manner  in  which 
well-bred  courtesy  duly  recognizes  meritorious  effort, 
but  never  hesitates  to  point  with  relentless  logic  to  the 
needed  improvement. 

Thus,  in  the  summary  of  the  Liverpool  Report  p.  iii, 
he  says  :  "  Struck  by  the  fruitful  variety  of  Liverpool's 
traditions,  and  by  the  self-sacrificing  generosity  of  .  .  . 
individual  workers,  I  cannot  disguise  from  the  committee 
the  grave  concern  with  which,  at  the  close  of  my  inquiry, 
I  regard  the  present  state  of  much  of  the  secondary  edu- 
cation of  Liverpool.  Its  defects  are  very  serious.  They 
seem  to  me  to  threaten  some  of  the  vital  interests  of  the 
city.  They  allow  a  large  part  of  its  intellectual  resources 
to  run  to  waste.  They  impair  the  efficiency  of  every  other 
part  of  the  educational  organization ;  "  and  again,  p.  36, 
'•  Secondary    education    has    been    its    Cinderella,   left 


250  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

too  long  in  comparative  neglect."  Sheffield  p.  18,  "While 
some  of  the  educational  institutions  of  Sheffield  are  on 
a  high  plane  of  efficiency  .  .  .  secondary  education  for 
boys  is  the  weak  place  in  the  educational  arrangements 
of  Sheffield ;  "  "  the  various  types  of  curricula  are  often 
blended  or  combined ;  but  efficiency  in  school  work 
flourishes  when  the  intellectual  aims  are  clear  "  (p.  9). 
In  Newcastle,  with  all  the  native  excellence  of  the 
material  on  which  the  schools  have  to  work,  and  the 
abundant  individuality  of  effort,  he  notes  a  lack  of  link- 
age, a  half  contempt  for  all  but  the  so-called  practical 
and  profitable  subjects;  demonstrating  by  diagrams  the 
irregularity  of  school  life  during  the  normal  period  of 
secondary  education,  he  says,  "  These  diagrams,  showing 
in  how  many  cases  the  secondary  school  life  of  the  pupil 
begins  too  late  and  ends  too  soon,  reveal  a  grave  flaw  in 
the  intellectual  efficiency  of  secondary  education  in  New- 
castle" (p.  10). 

As  to  individual  schools,  we  come  upon  statements 
like  this  one  (Derbyshire,  p.  46)  referring  to  a  coeduca- 
tional secondary  school  at  Bakewell  in  Derbyshire:  "A 
strong  staff  of  teachers,  admirably  equipped  for  their 
work,  is  needed  at  Bakewell  far  more  than  great  ex- 
penditure upon  brick  and  mortar." 

A  more  striking  example  of  Mr.  Sadler's  admirable 
method  is  furnished  in  his  Exeter  Report  p.  19  ff.; 
speaking  of  the  Episcopal  Middle  School  for  Girls,  he 


FUNCTION   OF   THE    EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  251 

points  out  the  inadequacy  in  classrooms,  its  evil  effect 
upon  the  teaching,  the  lack  of  funds  which  hinders  educa- 
tional success ;  it  impairs  the  efficient  staffing  of  the 
school  with  properly  qualified  teachers  and  substi- 
tutes that  inbreeding  process,  —  the  introduction  of  its 
own  graduates,  —  of  whose  serious  consequence  more 
than  one  American  city  could  tell  a  tale.  Giving  credit 
where  it  properly  belongs,  to  the  head  mistress  who  is 
working  in  the  teeth  of  great  difficulties,  he  passes  upon 
the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  instruction  in  various 
subjects:  "the  French  teaching  needs  to  be  organized 
on  a  plan  that  will  have  regard  both  to  the  capabilities 
of  the  staff  and  the  needs  of  the  children,"  p.  24,  and 
without  obscuring  various  shortcomings,  there  is  a  voice 
of  encouragement  in  his  final  statement,  p.  25,  "  Heavily 
handicapped  as  the  school  is  by  want  of  funds,  its  pos- 
sibilities cannot  be  judged  by  its  actual  achievements." 

Again  and  again  throughout  these  reports  there  are 
enunciated  general  educational  propositions  that  are  in 
effect  the  utterances  of  educational  truths ;  pieced 
together  they  might  be  labeled  his  educational  creed  ; 
with  a  recognition  of  the  characteristic  merits  of  the 
English  system,  with  a  patriot's  belief  in  the  desirability 
of  their  retention,  he  aspires  to  incorporate  or  adapt  into 
the  system  the  best  results  of  foreign  experiences.  The 
freedom  from  a  narrow  insularity  inspires  confidence  in 
the  value  of  his  educational  judgments. 


252  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

The  range  of  his  observations,  indicated  in  the  ac- 
companying summary,  may  serve  to  direct  American 
teachers  to  a  detailed  study  of  this  great  storehouse  of 
observations  and  suggestions. 

On  the  TRANSITION  from  the  elementary  to  the  second- 
ary school,  Sheffield  p.  26,  "  Some  of  the  most  skillful 
teaching  in  the  school  should  be  focused  at  the  point 
at  which  the  scholars  would  enter  from  the  public  ele- 
mentary schools."  Liverpool  p.  18,  "  It  is  essential  that 
the  courses  of  study  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  facili- 
tate the  admission  of  boys  from  the  public  elementary 
schools  at  twelve  years  of  age.  This  can  be  effected  by 
a  better  correlation  of  the  subjects  taught  in  the  elemen- 
tary and  secondary  schools." 

Expert  investigation.  Liverpool  p.  L  "  It  has  been 
my  duty  to  think  of  the  educational  system  as  a  whole 
instead  of  concentrating  attention  upon  one  department 
of  it  to  the  exclusion  of  the  rest ;  to  examine  the  links 
which  connect  its  various  parts ;  to  consider  the  kind  of 
service  which,  if  adequately  maintained,  each  group  of 
schools  may  fairly  be  expected  to  render  to  the  civic  hfe 
and  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  city ;  and  to 
measure  the  efficiency  of  the  educational  equipment  of 
Liverpool,  more  particularly  as  regards  its  secondary 
education  with  that  of  some  other  great  commercial 
cities  in  other  lands."  ^ 

1  Cf.  Exeter  pp.  35,  41,  63,  66. 


FUNCTION   OF   THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  253 

Sheffield  p.  43,  "  The  City  Education  Committee  should 
encourage  conferences  among  the  teachers  engaged  in 
different  types  of  schools  in  the  city  with  a  view  to  the 
strengthening  of  educational  unity  among  various  insti- 
tutions, to  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  of  new  educational 
methods,  and  to  the  adjustment  of  the  curricula  of  differ- 
ent schools  in  such  a  way  as  to  remove  any  unnecessary 
obstacles  to  the  passage  of  children  from  one  grade  of 
education  to  another." 

To  the  value  of  inspection,  its  aim,  method,  its  con- 
tinuity and  its  range,  frequent  references  occur,  e.g. 
Birkenhead  p.  51.  "  Inspection  by  competent  and  inde- 
pendent authorities  is  now  admitted  to  be  the  only  satis- 
factory method  of  finding  out  whether  a  school  is  efficient 
or  not.  Inspection  is  costly."  He  suggests,  therefore, 
that  the  Education  Committee  of  the  city  undertake  to 
arrange  for  the  inspection  of  both  public  and  private 
schools.  With  frequent  inspection  of  the  curriculum, 
part  by  part,  "  there  would  be  much  more  opportunity 
for  discussion  between  teachers  and  inspectors,  and 
the  suggestions  which  might  be  made  for  improve- 
ment would  stand  a  better  chance  of  being  put  into 
practice." 

Sheffield  p.  42,  "  I  think  that  all  private  schools  should 
be  invited  to  place  themselves  under  annual  inspection 
and  examination  so  that  their  intellectual  efficiency  may 
be   guaranteed;    I    found   that   all   the    private   school 


254  THE    AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

masters  and  mistresses  whom  I  saw  would  be  prepared 
for  such  inspection." 

"  Success  in  passing  a  few  pupils  through  external 
examinations  should  not  be  regarded  as  in  itself  a  suffi- 
cient test  of  the  educational  efficiency  of  the  whole  work 
of  a  school."  See  Essex  pp.  30,  39;  Exeter  p.  56; 
Liverpool  p.  26  ;  Derbyshire  p.  134. 

That  external  examinations,  if  frequent,  are  a  source 
of  weakness,  is  emphasized,  Birkenhead  p.  40.  Under 
such  examinations  "  the  real  problem,  namely,  the  intel- 
lectual need  of  the  individual  child,  is  often  overlooked." 
"  Examinations  might  be  made  good  servants,  but  when 
the  teacher's  energies  are  absorbed  in  preparing  for 
them,  when  little  time  is  left  for  the  questions  of  what 
course  of  study  and  what  methods  of  teaching  will  have 
the  best  influence  in  the  long  run  upon  the  pupils'  in- 
tellectual interest  and  powers,  then  the  examinations 
have  become  bad  masters."     Liverpool  p.  71. 

Education,  Sheffield  p.  13,  "Education  is  something 
far  deeper  and  more  searching  than  mere  book  learn- 
ing. It  is  a  discipline  of  body,  of  mind,  and  of  heart. 
Whatever  agencies  are  at  work  in  refining  and  purify- 
ing the  life  and  the  tastes  of  the  people,  as  well  as  in 
strengthening  its  intellectual  power,  are  justly  regarded 
as  part  of  the  system  of  education."  Cf.  Sheffield  p.  3 ; 
Birkenhead  p.  35;  Liverpool  pp.  62  ff.,  and  73. 

On  the  vagueness  in  the  use  of  the  term  "  Secondary 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERT     255 

Education,"  cf.  Essex  pp.  14,  16,  30;  Derbyshire  pp. 
6,  8;  Liverpool  pp.  4,  36,  21,  22.  "We  can  combine, 
if  we  so  will,  variety  of  individual  effort  with  the  helpful 
support  of  public  subsidy,  and  the  watchful  superintend- 
ence of  expert  care.  We  can  unite  that  vigor  of  per- 
sonal initiative  which  has  been  the  glory  and  the  strength 
of  certain  sides  of  our  national  life  with  the  power 
of  the  State,  with  the  resources  of  the  community,  and 
with  the  steady  pursuit  of  a  well  considered  national 
plan  of  educational  improvement."      Birkenhead  p.  22. 

References  to  the  aims  of  secondary  education 
are  to  be  found  in  Essex  pp.  24,  32,  33.  "To  hold 
the  balance  true  between  the  two  extremes  in  secondary 
education  —  between  the  extreme  development  and  the 
undue  neglect  of  intellectual  interests  —  is  the  great 
task  now  before  the  administrators  of  English  schools." 
Cf.  Sheffield,  p.  9 ;  Birkenhead  pp.  46,  49 ;  Derbyshire 
p.  99. 

Essex  p.  5,  "  It  would  be  injurious  to  the  collective 
interest  to  allow  unfettered  individualism  to  destroy 
our  chances  of  national  organization."  Liverpool  p. 
12,  "  It  would  be  a  real  misfortune  for  a  commercial 
city  to  make  commercial  knowledge  the  dominant  aim 
of  its  secondary  education.  The  more  likely  that  a 
boy's  future  life  work  is  to  absorb  him  in  questions 
which  necessarily  have  some  sordid  sides,  the  more 
need  is  there  to  insist  that   throughout   his  education 


256  THE   AMERICAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

there  shall  be  a  strong  vein  of  idealism  which  shall 
keep  his  aims  fresh  and  high  throughout  his  after  life. 
In  no  direction  is  it  more  necessary  than  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  commercial  community  to  give  large  place 
to  the  vivid  and  real  teaching  of  the  humanities.  Pre- 
mature preparation  for  private  schooling  would  be 
deadly  to  the  best  interests  of  Liverpool  and  also 
certain  to  defeat  its  own  object.  The  best  education 
is  slow,  it  needs  time  for  its  work,  it  cannot  be  hurried." 
Cf.  also  Liverpool  pp.  8,  11,  13,  15,  17,  36. 

Striking  diagrams  of  the  length  of  school  life, 
and  the  relation  of  various  parts  of  the  school  system, 
including  even  private  schools,  are  presented  and  dis- 
cussed in  Essex  pp.  13,  29,  Appendi.x  B;  Newcastle 
pp.  8,  9,  39 ;  Birkenhead  pp.  89  ff ;  Derbyshire  pp. 
10,  16;  Liverpool  p.  74. 

Various  questions  of  educational  policy,  together 
with  educational  opportunities,  in  which  the  value  of 
an  educational  director  is  included,  are  touched  upon 
in  Essex  pp.  2,  3,  7,  72-74;  Birkenhead  pp.  41,  42, 
46,  102  ;  Newcastle  pp.  58,  64  ;  Sheffield  pp.  4,  43,  45  ; 
Derbyshire  pp.  98-100;  133-136.  A  full  discussion 
from  the  economic  point  of  view  of  a  district  in  Der- 
byshire is  exceedingly  suggestive  ;  the  social  and  eco- 
nomic structure  of  the  district  as  an  example  of 
collectivist  democracy  is  treated  at  some  length ;  its 
cooperative  store,  its  musical  societies,  its  free  church 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERT     257 

organizations,  the  demand  for  the  lace  trade  "  that  calls 
for  the  exercise  of  artistic  taste  and  a  quick  sense  of 
color  and  form.  This  condition  as  a  psychological  back- 
ground to  the  economic  prosperity  of  the  district,  should 
be  kept  steadily  in  mind  in  the  educational  plans  framed 
for  the  community."  A  recognition  of  the  special  needs 
of  the  district,  which,  however,  does  not  ignore  the  other 
needs  of  the  region,  underlies  the  suggested  modification 
of  the  school  system. 

Similar  to  this  picture  of  special  conditions  is  the 
treatment  of  the  economic  conditions  of  Essex  (Essex 
p.  3);  cf.  Shefifield  p.  33;  Newcastle  p.  3  (with  special 
insistence  on  the  need  of  an  industrial  museum,  New- 
castle p.  65);  Derbyshire  pp.  9,  11,  25  ;  Liverpool  p.  14. 

A  noteworthy  adaptation  of  a  curriculum  to  what  Sad- 
ler considers  the  special  needs  of  a  community  like  Liv- 
erpool, namely,  emphasis  upon  the  humanities  and  the 
study  of  the  mother  tongue,  is  given  in  his  recommenda- 
tions, Liverpool  pp.  135,  141  ;  cf.  also  Newcastle  pp.  4, 
37;  Shefifield  p.  21;  Exeter  p.  37;  Birkenhead  p.  23, 
which  emphasizes  the  fact  that  undue  specialization  in 
the  direction  of  natural  science  is  unfavorable  to  the 
general  culture  of  the  mental  powers,  allowing  too  little 
time  for  English  subjects  and  other  linguistic  training. 
Apparently  suitable  to  some  types  of  mind,  "  it  was  apt 
in  most  cases  to  stunt  the  powers  of  expression  and 
those  studies  which  as  a  rule  prove  most  efficacious  in 


2S8  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

developing  wide  interests  and  in  stimulating  and  refining 
the  imagination,  were  thrust  into  a  corner." 

That  QUALITY  OF  INSTRUCTION  rather  than  quantity 
should  be  emphasized,  the  Liverpool  Report  pp.  133, 134, 
develops.  Good,  efficient  teachers,  good  equipment,  a 
general  strengthening  of  the  teaching  staff,  is  argued  for 
at  length,  Liverpool  pp.  137-140.  "The  real  efficiency 
and  influence  of  a  school  depend  upon  the  talent,  the 
energy,  the  experienced  skill  and  the  talent  of  its 
teachers,  and  therefore  no  part  of  the  expenditure  is 
more  remunerative  than  that  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  a  very  highly  qualified  set  of  masters." 

Birkenhead  p.  47,  "  It  is  quality  not  quantity  that  tells 
in  the  long  run.  A  prudent  course  is  to  have  a  few 
thoroughly  good  secondary  schools,  not  a  great  many 
indifferent  ones,  but  a  really  efficient  secondary  school 
is  a  costly  thing  to  maintain ;"  cf.  Birkenhead  p.  38. 
"  One  teacher  might  take  the  English  and  French,  being 
regularly  sejit  abroad  once  a  year  to  a  holiday  course, 
or  for  private  residence  in  a  French  family  "  (Derby- 
shire p.  43). 

Against  the  expediency  of  the  inbreeding  of  teachers 
Sadler  protests  in  Liverpool  p.  96.  "Teachers,  even 
more  than  other  people,  need  the  broadening  influence 
of  a  wide  experience.  They  learn  much  from  getting 
outside  their  own  local  associations,  and  from  meeting 
others  whose    lives   have  had  a   background   different 


FUNCTION   OF    THE    EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  259 

from  their  own.  The  interchange  of  ideas  and  expe- 
riences make  for  width  of  view  and  for  greater  fresh- 
ness of  thought." 

The  point  of  view  of  economy,  of  avoidance  of  un- 
necessary expenditure,  is  prominent  in  these  reports. 
Sheffield  p.  7;  Birkenhead  p.  8:  "To  devise  a  plan 
which  would  meet  the  pressing  needs  of  all  sections 
of  the  community  with  the  utmost  economy  consistent 
with  real  educational  efficiency." 

'•  Gradual  changes,  cautious  experiments  because  of 
the  changes  that  are  taking  place  in  the  spirit  and  aims 
of  secondary  education,"  are  frequently  emphasized ;  cf. 
Derbyshire  p.  23.  Educational  methods  and  traditions 
have  always  to  adjust  themselves  to  those  profound 
changes  in  character  and  ideas  which  come  about  through 
great  extensions  of  human  knowledge.  "  Much  that 
was  formerly  taken  for  granted  in  educational  procedure 
is  now  being  subjected  to  distinct  criticism.  We  may 
feel  that  many  of  the  modern  educational  movements 
have  set  in  a  dangerous  direction.  We  may  suspect 
that  in  course  of  time  much  that  at  present  looks  at- 
tractive and  liberating  will  be  followed  by  disillusion- 
ment and  reaction,  but  we  are  bound  to  act  .  .  .  etc." 

"  At  present  we  are  compelled  to  retain  every  educa- 
tional instrument  of  tested  value."  "  The  more  prudent 
course  will  be  to  concentrate  effort  on  getting  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  secondary  schools  into  a  high  state  of 


260  THE   AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

efficiency  and  encouraging  their  teachers  to  make  vari- 
ous experiments  in  curricula  and  in  method  of  teach- 
ing." 

Of  certain  vital  features  in  secondary  education 
courses  Sadler  speaks  in  Sheffield  p.  8.  "  That  those 
destined  to  receive  a  secondary  education  be  transferred 
not  later  than  at  the  age  of  twelve  to  the  secondary 
school,  that  there  should  be  three  main  types  of  secondary 
school,  each  with  its  variant  for  boys  or  girls  respectively, 
first,  that  in  which  mathematics  and  physical  science  pre- 
dominate ;  second,  that  in  which  (with  due  provision  for 
mathematical  teaching)  the  linguistic  discipline  predomi- 
nates, living  languages  being  taken  as  the  chief  vehicles 
of  instruction ;  and  third,  the  type  in  which  Latin  and 
Greek  are  dominant,  with  some  regard  to  one  modern 
foreign  language  as  well  as  to  mathematics."  To  a 
blending  of  these  various  types  he  objects.  "  Effi- 
ciency in  school  work  flourishes  when  the  intellectual 
aims  are  clear."     Sheffield  p.  9. 

In  Sheffield  pp.  31  and  32,  and  in  many  other  reports, 
he  emphasizes  strongly  the  need  "  of  sustaining  and 
developing  as  far  as  time  allows  the  pupils'  interest  in 
history  and  good  literature." 

An  interesting  contribution  to  the  value  or  absence 
of  value  of  certain  subjects  that  find  frequent  advocacy 
among  our  secondary  school  teachers  is  a  reference, 
Birkenhead  p.  ^y,  to  what  he  calls  "  a  devotion  to  short- 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERT    261 

Jiand2cs\^  bookkeeping,  which  almost  amounts  to  a  mania." 
The  educative  value  of  such  subjects  as  business  rou- 
tine or  commercial  correspondence  is  small.  "  Commer- 
cial instruction,  to  be  of  any  worth,  must  be  recognized 
for  what  it  is,  a  branch  of  technical  education  which 
should  come  after  a  reasonable  standard  of  general  edu- 
cation has  been  attained.  At  present  we  are  making  it 
a  cheap  substitute  for  a  course  of  general  instruction." 

Against  a  course  narrowly  utilitarian,  or  one  that 
is  a  mere  torso  of  a  curriculum,  Sadler  frequently  pro- 
tests.^ "  The  virtue  of  secondary  instruction  lies  in 
large  measure  in  its  duration,  in  its  slow  influence  upon 
the  intellect.  The  best  teachers  need  the  help  of  time 
if  they  wish  to  act  upon  intellectual  habit,  and  to  ac- 
complish the  education  of  the  mind  which  is  truly 
the  essential  aim  of  secondary  education."  Birkenhead 
p.  49. 

Again  and  again  he  emphasizes  that  teachers  must 
receive  such  remuneration  that  they  can  without 
anxiety  devote  themselves  to  the  work  before  them. 
Birkenhead  p.  23  :  "  The  scale  of  annual  grants  still  falls 
far  short  of  what  the  state  might  fairly  be  expected  to 
contribute  in  aid  of  so  costly  and  naturally  indispensable 
a  thing  as  an  efficient  secondary  education."  ^  Cf.  Derby- 
shire pp.  42,  43,  61,  65  ;  Essex  pp.  8,  42,  90,  and  partic- 
ularly Liverpool  pp.  137  ff.     Besides  the  normal  scheme 

1  Newcastle  p.  35,  Exeter  pp.  39-41.  2  Sheffield  p.  28. 


262  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

of  advancing  salaries,  Sadler  advocates  as  applicable  to 
cases  of  special  excellence  and  ability  the  adoption  of  a 
higher  scale  of  salary  on  the  headmaster's  recommenda- 
tion "when  it  was  thought  expedient  to  secure  or  to 
retain  the  services  of  a  teacher  with  specially  high  quali- 
fications for  the  work  of  the  school."  Liverpool  p.  138. 
Again,  "it  is  through  the  experience  of  its  older  teachers 
that  a  good  school  derives  many  of  the  elements  which 
are  of  special  value  in  forming  an  inspiring  tradition  of 
intellectual  thoroughness  and  of  devotion  to  duty.  And 
how  can  we  reasonably  expect  to  succeed  in  maintaining 
a  high  standard  of  intellectual  preparation  and  of  profes- 
sional training  for  the  calling  of  a  teacher  in  a  secondary 
school  if  we  allow  the  economic  prospects  of  the  profes- 
sion to  remain  in  a  state  which  gives  to  those  who  think 
of  devoting  themselves  to  its  duties  no  prospect  of  a 
fair  return  in  middle  life  for  the  cost  and  labor  of  ade- 
quately preparing  themselves  for  their  difficult  work  ? 
No  one  would  wish,  even  if  such  a  course  were  possible, 
to  see  our  secondary  schools  staffed  by  young  teachers 
only.  Such  a  state  of  things  would  gravely  injure  the 
intellectual  standards  of  the  schools,  and  rob  them  of 
the  wisdom  of  mature  experience."     Liverpool  p.  152. 

On  the  PRINCIPLES  that  are  to  prevail  in  different 
courses,  the  reports  furnish  many  an  interesting  com- 
ment ;  thus,  Sheffield  p.  8 :  "  No  one  boy  can  attempt  to  do 
everything ;  smattering  is  mischievous  ;  better  do  a  few 


FUNCTION   OF   THE    EDUCATIONAL   EXPERT  263 

things  well  than  much  badly,  and  the  aptitudes  of  dif- 
ferent children  differ  as  greatly  as  do  the  practical  needs 
of  different  occupations."  With  a  number  of  the  most 
progressive  continental  educators,  he  favors  the  post- 
ponement of  Latin  until  pupils  are  twelve  years  of  age 
(Liverpool  p.  185),  and  urges  that  French  undertaken 
intensively  shall  precede  Latin.  Liverpool  p.  135  :  "In 
order  that  the  boys  may  get  a  feeling  of  power  in  their 
use  of  it  (French),  it  should  be  taught  according  to  the 
best  modern  methods,  and  with  due  regard  both  to  skill 
in  speaking  and  reading  it,  and  to  grammatical  accuracy 
in  composition."  A  special  memorandum  by  Mr. 
Cloudesley  Brereton,  forming  Appendix  I  of  the  Liver- 
pool Report,  discusses  in  detail  suggested  methods  in  the 
teaching  of  modern  languages.  This  paper  is  worthy 
of  the  closest  study,  Cf.  also  Newcastle  p.  36,  Exeter 
pp.  13,  14,  46,  47. 

We  encounter  a  frank  criticism  of  demerits  in  the 
various  schools  in  Derbyshire  p.  82,  where  there  are 
pointed  out  as  objections  the  late  age  at  which  pupils 
enter  the  secondary  school,  the  lack  of  a  good  reference 
library,  and  the  absence  of  connection  between  the  sec- 
ondary and  elementary  schools.  Cf.  Derbyshire'  p.  91  : 
"  It  would  be  inexpedient  to  place  here  (mentioning  a 
certain  small  town)  a  secondary  school  of  the  classical 
type.  The  pupils  needing  this  kind  of  education  can  get 
it  without  serious  difficulty  in  neighboring  towns.  If  such 


264  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

a  school  were  established  and  made  thoroughly  efficient, 
much  of  its  work  would  be  unsuitable  to  the  real  needs  of 
the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  were 
left  inadequately  staffed  and  intellectually  inefficient,  it 
would  be  no  good  to  anybody."  Cf.  Liverpool  pp.  133, 
146,  148,  149,  152;  Newcastle  p.  59;  Essex  p.  31; 
Sheffield  p.  20 :  "  It  is  no  kindness  to  a  child  to  push 
him  up  educationally  into  a  false  position.  We  need 
in  England  to  neglect  neither  the  average  pupil  nor  the 
gifted  one."     Cf.  also  Newcastle  p.  10, 

To  the  ACADEMIC  QUALIFICATIONS  of  the  tcacher  and 
his  training,  Sadler,  who  has  been  a  close  observer  of 
German  and  French  methods,  reverts  frequently.  Thus, 
Essex  p.  81  :  "It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  a  larger 
proportion  even  of  those  intending  to  teach  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools  of  the  county  shall  have  the  advantage 
of  a  college  training."  He  quotes  with  approval,  Birk- 
enhead p.  57,  "A  good  system  of  school  organization 
will  do  something,  the  introduction  of  rational  methods 
and  textbooks  will  do  more.  But  we  need  look  for  no 
permanent  improvement  in  our  schools  until  they  are 
filled  by  a  new  race  of  teachers,  better  paid,  better 
trained  for  their  work,  and  above  all,  more  highly 
educated." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  his  objections  to  the  nar- 
rowly TRAINED  SPECIALIST.  Speaking  of  the  teacher 
in  applied  mathematics  and  science,  he  says,  Sheffield 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERT     265 

p.  21,  "Applied  science  is  exerting  an  ever  growing 
influence  on  social  problems  and  on  the  intellectual 
movements  of  our  times.  It  affects  the  moral  and 
human  side  of  things  as  well  as  their  material  and 
mechanical  side.  It  is  expedient,  therefore,  that  our 
trained  technologist  should  have  made  some  acquaint- 
ance with  those  questions  of  human  history  and  develop- 
ment which  are  treated  in  the  philosophical,  the  historical, 
the  Uterary  and  the  economic  courses  at  a  university, 
A  divorce  between  technology  and  culture  would  be 
sterilizing  to  both  sides." 

This  reference  to  technological  education  is  one  of 
a  series  of  topics  frequently  treated.  How  to  strengthen 
technical  education  is  discussed,  Essex  pp.  75-78,  Der- 
byshire p.  154:  "Experience  has  shown  that  a  liberal 
secondary  education  is  the  only  sound  basis  upon  which 
a  system  of  higher  technical  education  can  rest.  The 
experience  of  Germany  is  conclusive  on  this  point." 
To  us  Americans  the  discussion  of  the  attitude  of  pro- 
gressive employers  toward  a  problem  of  technical  educa- 
tion is  supremely  valuable.  Sheffield  pp.  15-17  pre- 
sents a  plan  very  similar  to  that  in  operation  in  the  en- 
gineering department  of  the  University  of  Cincinnati, 
Cf.  Birkenhead  pp.  74-78,  "  Profitable  specialization  is 
impossible  save  for  a  mind  founded  upon  a  basis  of 
general  education."  Irregular  attendance  and  lack  of 
logical  connection  in  the  evening  classes  is  criticized. 


266  THE    AMERICAN   SECONDARY    SCHOOL 

Birkenhead  pp.  65,  79 ;  Essex  p.  3.  A  general  criti- 
cism of  the  evening  school  system  is  afforded,  Liver- 
pool pp.  125-130.  Comparing  with  the  vigorous 
peoples'  high  schools  and  their  influence  on  the 
national  life  of  Denmark,  and  the  continuation  schools 
of  Germany,  Sadler,  Liverpool  p.  130  says,  "A  self- 
governing  nation  needs  good  evening  schools  because 
they  provide  what  is  really  a  form  of  secondary  edu- 
cation for  the  masses  of  the  people."  And  he  adds, 
p.  132,  "Compulsory  attendance  at  evening  classes  In 
suitable  subjects  on  two  nights  a  week  during  the  winter 
months  in  each  of  the  two  years  immediately  following 
the  day  school  course,  seems  to  me  an  expedient  and 
necessary  development  of  our  educational  system. 
Nothing  short  of  state  action  can  secure  the  adjustment 
of  hours  of  employment  to  the  needs  of  those  who  ought 
to  be  attending  continuation  classes.  .  .  .  And  after 
some  temporary  inconvenience  and  much  indignant 
opposition,  the  new  order  of  things  would,  I  am  per- 
suaded, approve  itself  to  the  judgment  of  the  nation  at 
large."  In  connection  with  the  general  subject  of  the 
continuation  schools,  and  the  features  that  in  them  make 
for  efficiency,  cf.  Birkenhead  pp.  68-78. 

The  problem  of  providing  for  the  pupils  who  cannot 
profit  by  a  complete  secondary  course,  engages  Mr. 
Sadler's  attention  in  every  one  of  the  reports.  He  intro- 
duces as  a  new    and   intermediate  type  of    school  the 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERT     267 

HIGHER  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL,  references  to  which  in  its 
various  types  occur  in  Birkenhead  pp.  41-45  and  89; 
Derbyshire  pp.  12,  13,  92,  11 6- 120,  156-174;  New- 
castle pp.  35-40,  and  elsewhere.  The  detailed  elabora- 
tion of  curricula  for  this  type  of  school  appears  in 
Derbyshire  pp.  42-66 ;  and  the  special  needs  accord- 
ing to  locality  and  character  of  the  population  are  made 
prominent.  Derbyshire  pp.  173-174;  Newcastle  pp. 
35,  36;  Birkenhead  pp.  43-45. 

It  is  impossible  to  exhaust  in  this  rapid  survey  the 
educational  significance  of  these  reports.  If  the  char- 
acter of  the  topics  selected  invites  to  a  detailed  study  of 
a  number  of  the  reports,  the  excursus  has  served  its 
purpose. 


APPENDIX 

OUTLINES  FOR  THE  TEACHING  OF  CER- 
TAIN SUBJECT  GROUPS  IN  THE  SEC- 
ONDARY  SCHOOL   COURSE 

I.  ENGLISH 

A.    History  of   the  Teaching   of   English   in  Secondary 
Schools  before  and  after  1876. 

The  necessity  for  the  teaching  of  English  ;  influence  of  changed 
conditions  in  population :  why  the  school  finds  here  one  of  its  most 
serious  duties. 

English  as  the  unifying  subject  of  the  high  school  course. 

Influence  of  this  theory  on  the  general  construction  of  school 
programs. 

Comparative  allotment  of  time  to  the  subject. 

English  in  preparatory  schools,  academies,  and  high  schools ; 
demands  of  the  colleges  ;  character  of  the  work  they  suggest. 

Recognition  of  the  present  necessity ;  the  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge with  respect  to  English. 

References : 

Carpenter,  Baker,  and  Scott,  The  Teaching  of  English,  pp.  37-51 ; 

also  186. 
Chubb,  Percival,  The  Teaching  of  Etiglish. 
Colby,  J.  R.,  Literature  and  Life  in  School. 
Neilson,  Wm.,  What  May  Colleges  Expect?     School   Review, 

Feb.,  1908  ;  see  also  School  Review,  Dec,  1908,  646  ff". 
Alton,  Geo.   B.,   The  Purpose  of  English  in  the  High  School, 

School  Review,  1897,  pp.  148-170. 

269 


270  APPENDDC 

B.    Theory  of  the  Teaching  of  the  Mother  Tongue  in 
England,  Germany,  and  France. 

Moral  importance  assigned  to  the  subject  in  Germany  and 
France. 

The  study  of  the  mother  tongue  considered  as  an  organic  unit  ; 
its  component  parts  definitely  organized  —  its  place  as  the  central 
subject  in  all  secondary  courses  —  value  of  this  policy. 

Special  features  of  teaching  the  mother  tongue  in  France. 

Definiteness  of  organization  of  work  in  the  vernacular  in  Ger- 
man and  French  schools  ;  unity  of  purpose,  how  effected.  A  study 
of  various  textbooks,  how  they  are  graduated.  Governmental  su- 
pervision of  manuals  and  courses  of  instruction ;  aims  as  to  enun- 
ciation, oral  and  written  speech,  style,  acquaintance  with  literary 
masterpieces. 

Training  of  teachers,  preparation  and  criticism  of  textbooks  and 
texts. 

References  : 

Carpenter,  Baker,  and  Scott,  pp.  26-36;  52-66. 

Dale,  F.  H.,  English  Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects^  I, 

533-576. 
Russell,  James  E.,  Ger?nan  Higher  Schools,  chap.  12. 
Hartog,  P.  J.,  Teaching  the  Mother  Tongue  in  France,  Educational 

Review,  April,  1908,  pp.  331-351. 
Revised  Curricula,  etc.,  for  High  Schools  in  Prussia,  abstract 

from  Ordinances  of  Prussian  Ministry  of  Education  in  1901 ; 

compare  for  study  of  mother  tongue  vol.  9  of  English  Special 

Reports,  p.  194,  with  statements  in  vol.  3  of  same  reports,  pp. 

268-271,  and  p.  316. 
Chesterton,  The  Defendant,  pp.  124-131,  On  Neglect  of  Study  of 

English   in  England. 
Voss  (Norwegian),  Die  pddagogische  Vorbildung  zum  hoheren 

Lehramt  in  Preussen,  p.  55  on  instruction  in    the    mother 

tongue. 
Lehmann,  Rud.,  Der  Deutsche   Unterricht   (2d   edition),  1897, 

pp.  438-453- 


APPENDIX  271 

Smith,  Jessie  F.,  English  in  Secondary  Schools  of  England^  etc., 
Educational  Review,  Oct.,  1910,  266. 

C.    Relation  of  English  Work  in  the  Elementary  School 

TO   THAT   OF   THE    HiGH    SCHOOL. 

Possibilities  and  limitations  in  elementary  school ;  capacities  of 
teachers  ;  material  available  ;  method  employed,  aim. 

Difficulties  of  the  task  ;  paraphrasing  and  its  dangers. 

The  reading-series  in  elementary  and  secondary  courses ;  its 
history;  criticism;  its  present  unpopularity ;    the  substitute  offered. 

The  ideal  of  a  reading  series  ;  kind  of  materials  to  be  selected. 

The  disciplinary  feature  ;  development  of  vocabulary,  of  thought 
experiences. 

Ballad  poetry. 

Model  lessons  for  elementary  teachers. 

Danger  of  over-interpretation  and  of  illegitimate  correlation. 

Factors  of  good  elementary  work. 

Character  of  grammar  work  in  elementary  school. 

References  : 

Reeder,  R.  R.,  The  Historical  Development  of  School  Readers 
and  Method  in  Teaching  Readiftg,  Columbia  Univ.  Press, 
1900. 

Ballad  poetry:  Atlantic  Educational  Journal,  Dec,  1908,  pp. 
16  ff. 

MacClintock,  P.  L.,  Literature  in  the  Elementary  School  (Univ. 
of  Chicago  Press,  1908). 

Wolfe,  L.  E.,  Reading  in  the  Elementary  Schools,  Educational 
Review,  Oct.,  1908,  pp.  262-272. 

Haliburton  and  Smith,  Poetry  in  the  Grades,  Riverside  Educa- 
tional monographs. 

School  (London),  Sept.,  1907,  pp.  70  ff.  on  selection  of  books  for 
children  in  Germany ;  aims  and  method  pursued. 

CShea,  Linguistic  Development,  chap.  X. 

Hinsdale,  B.  A.,  Teaching  the  Language  Arts,  chaps.  8-19. 


272  APPENDIX 

D.    Knowledge  and  Appreciation    the  Keynote  of  High 
School  Work. 

How  to  strip  it  of  the  character  of  a  task. 

What  features  are  subsidiary  to  central  objects  ? 

Unity  of  the  work  develops  power  of  reproduction. 

Influence  on  character. 

Relations  of  composition,  rhetoric,  and  literature. 

Consonance  in  method  of  advance. 

With  what  literary  productions  shall  the  school  make  the  pupil 
acquainted,  in  what  order,  and  how  ? 

Development  of  a  rational  four-year  course. 

Mechanical  methods  of  distribution  of  reading  matter. 

Principles  to  be  observed ;  the  concentric  idea. 

Reading  for  enjoyment  and  for  study. 

Necessity   of  combating   slovenly  enunciation   and    expression ; 
elocution. 

First  year's  work  of  supreme  importance  ;  why  ? 

The  short  story  —  its  character  —  various  types. 

Various  purposes  in  study  of  selections. 

The  annotated  textbook. 

What  is  appreciation  ?     Appreciation  versus  criticism. 

Attitude  of  teacher  toward  critical  estimate ;  wise  and  unwise 
stimulation  ;  the  historical  method. 

Varieties  of  literary  expression. 

Scope  of  work,  guiding  hand  of  teacher,  nature  of  his  own  attain- 
ments and  interest ;  width  of  collateral  information. 

Special  interests  of  teacher  prevent  monotony. 

References  : 

Ashmun,   Prose    Literature  for  Secondary  Schools,   Houghton, 

Mifflin  Co.,  1910. 
Brown,  G.  P.,  On  the  Teaching  of  English  in  the  High  School,  in 
Fifth    Yearbook   National    Society    for    Scientific    Study    of 
Education,  pp.  44-60. 


APPENDIX  273 

Coblentz,  H.  C,  School  Review,  April,  1909,  p.  283. 

Lambert,  L.,  The  Study  of  English,  in  Education,  Feb.,  1909,  pp. 

351-359- 
Report  of  Conference  Committee  on  High  School  English,  School 

Review,  Feb.,  1909,  pp.  85-88. 
On  Treatment  of  Poetry,  Monatschrift    fiir  hbhere  Schulen,  III, 

Oct.,  1904,  pp.  481-486. 
Ellis,  Havelock.  On  Learning  to  Write,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov., 

1908,  pp.  626-632. 
Erskine,  English  in  the  High  School,  Educational  Review,  Nov., 

1910. 
Chubb,  P.,   Menace    of  Pedantry,   School    Review,  Jan.,  1912, 

pp.  34  flf. 
The  Temporary  Decay  of  the  Short  Story,  in  Fortnightly  Review, 

Oct.,  1908,  pp.  631-642. 
Canby,  Henry,  The  Short  Story  (Yale  Studies  in  English),  Holt 

and  Co. 
Albright,  E.  M.,  The  Short  Story  (The  Macmillan  Company). 
Criticism  on  Albright,  School  Review,  Jan.,  1908,  pp.  61  ff. 
Matthews,  Brander,  Philosophy  of  the  Short  Story  (Longmans). 
Lipsky,    Rhythms    of  Prose    Style    (Archives    of    Psychology, 

Columbia  Univ.). 
Fitch,  J.  G.,  Lectures  on  Teaching,  pp.  275-278. 
Faunce,  Wm.  G.,  77/-?  Humanizing  of  Study,  School  Review, 

Oct.,  1908,  pp.  489  ff. 
Mahy,  yEstheiic  Appreciation,  School  Review,  XV,  pp.  731  ff. 

E.  Balance  between  Poetry  and  Prose;    how   to  Treat 
Poetry  in  the  Classroom. 

Experience  of  foreign  schools. 
Balance  between  everyday  and  literary  language. 
Position  of  English  teacher  among  his  colleagues. 
Influence  of  entrance  requirements  and  entrance  examinations, 
and  accrediting  system ;  how  to  meet  this  influence. 
Changes  in  requirements  —  present  tendencies. 
History  of  entrance  requirements. 
Harvard  entrance  requirements  in  English. 


274  APPENDIX 

References : 

H.    Paul,    The    Teaching  of  Lyric  Poetry^  Bulletin   of  Illinois 

Association  Teachers  of  English,  IV,  Nos.  2  and  3. 
Buehler,  Training  of  the  Imagifiation  in  the  Study  of  Literature, 

School  Review,  Dec,  1898. 
Report  of  English    Co7iference    (sub-committee)    in  Report  of 

Committee  of  Ten,  pp.  86-96  (U.S.  Bureau   of  Education, 

publication  No.  205). 
Report    of  National    Educational    Association   of  Teachers   of 

English  on  Entrance   Requirements,  School   Review,   Dec, 

1908,  pp.  646-659. 
Scott,    F.,    What   the    West    Wants    in   Preparatory  English^ 

School  Review,  Jan.,  1909,  pp.  10  ff. 

F.  No  Intrusion  of  Foreign  Purpose  into  Primary  Needs 
OF  English  Course. 

Teaching  the  method  of  interpretation. 

Develop  a  regular  method  of  conducting  class  work  with  freedom 
in  modifications. 

Division  of  work  to  be  both  practical  and  scientific. 

Distinction  between  reading  and  study  tests. 

Technical  difficulties. 

Literature  as  Knowledge,  as  Science,  as  Art. 

Technical  grammar:  Present  attitude  toward  study  of  grammar. 

Use  of  excellent  translations  from  the  classics  for  content. 

What  place  shall  be  assigned  to  a  study  of  history  of  English 
literature  in  the  high  school  ? 

English  applied  to  work  in  other  subjects,  e.g.  history,  science, 
mathematics. 

References  : 

On  Translation  of  Classics,  Classical  Weekly,  March  27,  1909, 

pp.  161  ff. 
Lehman,   Rud.    Methods    of    Interpretation,   Monatschrift    fiir 

hohere  Schulen,  VI,  1907,  pp.  656  ff. 
Chubb,  P.,  Teaching  of  English,  pp.  322  ff. 
]ts^tTstTi,  Modern  English  Grammar,  School  Review,  Oct.,  1910. 


APPENDIX  275 

G.  Composition. 

Literar)'  topics  or  everyday  subjects  ? 

Conflict  of  tendencies. 

How  can  its  place  be  maintained  in  the  curriculum  ? 

Statement  of  composition  topics. 

Work  of  correction,  of  discussion. 

Influence  of  school  on  imagination. 

Mechanical  precision. 

Devices  of  clever  teachers. 

Concentric  idea  in  composition  as  against  consecutive  order  of 
narrative,  descriptive,  argumentative  writing. 

Relation  between  oral  and  written  speech. 

Is  a  special  vocabulary  called  for  in  written  composition  ? 

Composition  method  in  German  schools ;  is  it  correct  or  repre- 
hensible? 

Present  attitude  of  German  teachers. 

References : 

Mead,  Conflicting  ideals  in  Teaching  English^  Educational  Re- 
view, March,  1903. 

Chubb,  P.,  Teaching  of  English,  pp.  322  flf. 

Colvin  and  Meyer,  Imaginative  Elements  in  the  Work  of  School 
children.     Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  33,  1906,  pp.  84-93. 

Denney,  J.  V.,  Contributio7is  to  Rhetorical  Theory  (two  problems 
of  composition  teaching) . 

Thurber,  Saml.,  Five  Axioms  of  Composition  Teaching,  School 
Review,  1897,  pp.  7-17. 

Preliminary  Report  oti  English  Composition  Teachings  Bulletin 
of  Illinois  Association  of  Teachers  of  English,  III,  No.  7. 

II.   HISTORY 

A.   History  of  History  Teaching. 

Former  neglect  of  history  in  the  schools  ;  its  probable  causes. 
What  do  the  curricula  show  ? 


276  APPENDIX 

Appreciation  of  its  educational  value  in  America  and  in  Europe. 

History  and  literature  together  the  core  of  a  high  school  course. 

History  report  in  Report  of  Committee  of  Ten. 

Report  of  History  Committee  of  Seven. 

The  attitude  of  the  American  Historical  Association. 

Result  of  detailed  investigations  of  history-teaching. 

References : 

Bourne,  Teaching  of  History  and  Civics. 

Adams,  H.  B.,  History  of  Teac/mtg  of  History  in  U.S.,  Bureau 

of  Education,  Washington,  1887. 
White,  Andrew  D.,  Autobiography,  Vol.  I. 
Hall,   G.    Stanley,   and    others.  Methods  of   Teaching  History 

(Heath  &  Co.). 
Cheyney,    What  is  History?  in    History   Teachers'   Magazine, 

Dec,  1910,  pp.  75  ff. 
Langlois  and  Seignobos,  Ititroduction  to  Study  of  History. 
Salmon,  Lucy  M.,  Principles  in   Teaching  History,  First  Year- 

Book,  National  Society  for  Scientific  Study  of  Education,  1902. 
Droysen,  Outlines  of  Principles  of  History,  translated  by  E.  B. 

Andrews,  1897. 
McMurry,  F.,  Concentration,  in  First  Herbart  Yearbook,  pp.  61, 

64. 
A  History  Syllabus  for  Secondary  Schools    (D.   C.    Heath    & 

Co.),   at  practical    elaboration   of    Report    of   Committee    of 

Seven. 
Are  Modifications  of  the  Report  of  Committee  of  Seven  desirable  "i 

N.  E.  History  Teachers'  Assn.,  April,  1908. 
Influence  of  Report  of  Committee  of  Seven,  Educational  Review, 

April,  1909,  pp.  331-341. 
Proceedings  of  North   Central  History   Teachers'  Assn.,    1908, 

paper  by  Prof.  West,  pp.  12-20. 

B,  What  Knowledge  of  History  should  Precede  the  High 
School  Period  ? 

The  varieties  of  history  teaching  in  the  elementary  schools. 
The  problem  of  history  in  the  elementary  schools. 


APPENDIX  277 

The  concentric  scheme  ;  the  part  of  the  history  teacher. 
The  value  of  a  uniform  course. 

Three  stages  ;  recognition  of  facts,  interpretation,  compre- 
hension. 

References  : 

Johnson,  Henry,  History  in  the  Elementary  School^   Teachers 

College  Record,  Nov.,  1908. 
McMurry,  Chas.  A.,  Special  Method  in  History. 
Doub,  W.  C,  Topical  Discussion  of  American  History,  Teachers 

Manual  (Whitaker,  San  Francisco). 
Atkinson,  Alice  M.,  European  Beginnings  of  American  History, 

Ginn  &  Co.,  1912. 
The  Study  of  History  in  the  Elementary  Schools,  Report  of  Com- 
mittee   of  Eight  to    the  American    Historical  Assn.    Chas. 

Scribner's  Sons,  1909. 
Mace,   W.  H.,  Method  in   History.,  chaps,  on  the  "  Elementary 

Phases  of  History  Teaching,"  pp.  255-311. 
Report  of  History   Committee  of  Seven,   Appendix    by   Miss 

Salmon,  pp.  159  ff. 

C  The  Place  of  History  in  the  Secondary  Curricula. 

The  proper  aim  of  history  teaching  in  secondary  schools  ;  itg 
scope  and  the  methods  to  be  applied. 

A  preliminary  course  in  primitive  history. 

Substance  and  form  ;  principles  of  selection  in  history  teaching. 

What  are  to  be  considered  the  essentials  and  the  nonessentials  ? 
Institutions,  constitutional  problems. 

References  : 

Robinson,  James  H.  Mediaeval  and  Modern  History  in  the 
High  School,  Fifth  Herbart  Yearbook,  pp.  42  ff. 

American  Historical  Review,  vol.  7,  p.  426. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  The  Pedagogy  of  History,  in  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  XII,  pp.  339  ff. 

Burstall,  Sarah,  Impressions  of  American  Education,  1908, 
chapter  on  Method. 


278  APPENDIX 

D.   Specialization  or  Breadth  of  Information  in  the  High 
School  Stage. 

The  source-method,  the  intensive  study  of  a  period ;  how  to 
apply  them. 

Effect  on  the  mind  of  the  student. 

Patriotism  and  prejudice.  ' 

Sequence  in  study,  and  distribution  as  to  time  (number  of  years 
and  of  recitations  per  week) . 

Facts  versus  motives  and  inferences  ;  memorizing. 

Textbooks  —  their  relation  to  class  work. 

Brief  or  elaborate  textbooks  ?     Supplementary  reading. 

The  teacher  —  his  preparation,  his  qualifications  ;  the  art  of 
narration  in  history. 

The  German  teacher  of  history. 

Recent  changes  in  the  methods  of  the  French  schools. 

How  to  study  and  teach  history. 

Methods  of  conducting  class  exercises  in  history. 

Correlation  of  history  with  geography  and  literature. 

Aids  to  historical  study,  visual  and  imaginative  ;  documents, 
collections,  etc.     General  library  facilities. 

References : 

Bourne,  Teaching  of  History,  chap.  2  (on  source  material). 

Historical  Reprints,  Univ.  of  Penn. 

Seignobos,    Ch.,    V  Hist  aire    dans    Venseignement    secondaire^ 

Armand  Colin,  Paris,  1906. 
De  Garmo,  Interest  and  Education,  pp.  150  ff. 
Freeman,  Historical  Geography. 

Bingham,  Geographical  Influences  in  American  History. 
Semple,  American  History  and  its  Geographic  Conditions. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  Descriptive  Sociology,  Part  I,  English  History, 

by  James  Collier  (D.  Appleton  &  Co). 
Robinson,  J.  H.,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Western  Europe., 

with  2  vols,  of  readings. 
Matthias,  Praktische  Pddagogik,  pp.  39  and  45  (ist  edition). 


APPENDIX  279 

Smith,    Goldvvin,    Is    History    a    Science  f     Amer.     Historical 

Review,  April,  1905. 
Illustrative  Material  for  Greek  and  Roman  History,  Teachers 

Bulletin,  Univ.  of  Cincinnati,  Dec,  1905. 
Salmon,   Lucy,    The  Historical  Museiitn,  Educational   Review, 

Feb.,  191 1. 
For  History  in  German  and  French  Schools,  see  Bibliography  in 

Bourne,  chap.  3. 
Lloyd,  J.  E.,  History  in  Spencer,  ^/wj  and  Practice  of  Teach- 

ifig  (Cambridge,  1903),  pp.  141-155. 
Numerous  articles  in  History  Teachers'  Magazine,  Germantown, 

Pa.,  1910,  191 1,  and  igi2. 

E.  Effect   of    College    Entrance   Examinations   on   His- 
tory   Teaching. 

Types  of  examination  questions,  sound  and  unsound. 

The  topical  method  of  study  ;  its  value ;  written  exposition. 

Large  topics  ;  summaries  ;  comparative  reviews. 

A  needed  modification  of  the  recommendations  of  Committee  of 
Seven. 

Distribution  of  material  through  high  school  course ;  the  value 
of  a  continuous  history  course. 

Modifications  of  present  courses. 

References  : 

On  comprehensive  topics  ;  Lehrproben  und  Lehrgange,  Heft.  98, 

(1909),  pp.  70-78. 
Possible  Modifications  of  the  Secondary  School  Courses  in  Sixth 

Annual  Convention  of  History  Teachers  of  the  Middle  States 

and  Maryland,  1908. 


28o  APPENDIX 

III.   THE  CLASSICS  — LATIN  AND   GREEK 

A.  The  General  Function  of  Language  Teaching. 

Application  to  Latin. 

The  prevailing  estimate  ot  the  humanities  (England,  Germany, 
France,  America)  —  opinions  of  humanists  and  scientists. 

Mastery  of  the  vernacular  influenced  by  knowledge  of  foreign 
tongue. 

Latin  versus  modern  languages. 

The  various  types  of  the  cultivated  man. 

References  : 

Bennett  and  Bristol,  The  Teaching  of  Latin  and  Greek,  pp.  1-49 

and  bibliography  to  individual  chapters. 
Dettweiler,     P.,     Didaktik     und    Methodik     des    Lateinischen 

Unterrichts,  Munich,  2d  edit.  1906,  pp.  10-19. 
Asquith,  Right  Hon.  H.   H.,  On  Classical  Culiitre,  in  Classical 

Weekly,  Dec.  19,  1908,  pp.  74-77- 
Bennett,  Chas.  E.,  An  Ancient  Schoolmaster'' s  Message,  Classical 

Journal,  vol.  IV,  Feb.,  1909,  pp.  149-164. 
Kelsey,  F.  W.,  Latin  and  Greek  in  American  Education,  The 

Macmillan   Company,    1911;   besides   Prof.    Kelsey's   papers 

those  of  Prof.  Wenley,  The  Classics  and  the  Elective  Systetn, 

pp.  283-302  and  especially  of  Prof.  Paul  Shorey,  The  Case  for 

the  Classics,  pp.  303-343  (reprinted  in   School  Review,  vol. 

18,  Nov.,  1910,  p.  585). 
Symposiiim  on   the  value   of  Humanistic,  particularly   classical 

studies,  School  Review,  vol.  14,  pp.  389-414 ;  15,  pp.  409-434 ; 

16,  pp.  370-390- 
Fitch,  Lectures  on  Teaching,  pp.  226  ff. 
Conradi,  F.,  Latin  in  the  High  School,  Pedagogical  Seminary, 

1905,  p.  I. 
Bentley,  Latin  in  Secondary  Schools  (in  opposition)  Pedagogical 

Seminary,  1901,  pp.  395-411. 
Leygues,  M.,  quoted  in  Gabriel  Compayr^,  Reform  in  Secondary 

Education  in  France,  Educational  Review,  Feb.,  1903,  p.  142. 
Schopenhauer,  A.,  Art  of  Literature,  pp.  43-46. 


APPENDIX  281 

Ramsay,  Efficiency  in  Education. 

Sadler,  Sir  Michael,  The  Unrest  in  Secondary  Education,  in 
English  Special  Reports,  vol.  9,  p.  93. 

B.  The  Prevailing  Length  of  the  Latin  Course. 

Efforts  to  extend  its  duration. 

What  facts  do  the  secondary  school  statistics  prove  in  regard 
to  the  popularity  of  Latin  ? 

The  course  in  the  classics  in  European  schools  of  various  types ; 
views  of  Paulsen  and  others. 

The  usual  distribution  of  the  Latin  work  in  the  high  school  course. 

What  should  be  the  aim  of  Latin  teaching  in  the  high  school  .'' 

Recent  tendencies  and  reforms  in  Germany. 

Shall  Latin  be  retained  as  a  characteristic  of  all  high  school  work? 

What  value  attaches  to  one  year  of  Latin,  especially  for  English- 
speaking  pupils  ? 

Present  time  allotment  for  Latin  with  relation  to  the  amount 
of  work  undertaken  ;  criticism. 

References  : 

Smalley,  Frank,  Status  of  Classical  Studies  in  Secondary  Schools, 
Classical  Journal,  I.,  pp.  111-119. 

Report  of  Committee  of  Ten  of  the  National  Educational 
Association,  1903,  p.  45,  and  pp.  60-75. 

Report  of  Committee  of  Twelve  of  the  American  Philological 
Assn.,  etc.,  1899  (see  Bennett,  pp.  125-130). 

Reinhardt,  K.,  Der  altsprachliche  Unterricht  in  dem  Gymnasium 
nach  dem  Frankfurter  Lehrplan.  (Cf.  for  the  Reform  Move- 
ment the  2d  edition  of  Dettweiler,  pp.  256-266.) 

Waldeck,  A.,  Praktische  Anleitung  zitm  Unterricht  in  der 
lateinischen  Grammatik  nach  den  neuen  Lehrpldnen,  Halle, 
1902. 

C.  First-year  Work  in  a  Four-year  Scheme  of  Latin. 

Prevalent  methods ;  textbooks. 
Aims  and  attainment. 


282  APPENDIX 

Character  of  class  instruction.  ^ 

Desirable  qualifications  of  teacher. 

Correlation  of  various  stages  of  the  work. 

Class  preparation  and  home  preparation. 

Acquisition  of  vocabulary  ;  theories. 

Proportion  of  oral  and  written  work. 

A  Cassar  vocabulary  or  a  wider  vocabulary  ? 

Difficulties  of  first  years  study;  results;  skill  in  method;  train- 
ing in  the  art  of  study. 

Formal  discipline  versus  content. 

Serviceable  teaching  devices. 

Significance  of  pronunciation,  of  Latin  quantities,  of  concrete 
material. 

Introduction  to  tradition,  thought,  and  life  of  the  Roman  people 
through  the  subject  matter  presented. 

Comparative  study  of  elementary  textbooks. 

Accuracy  in  forms  is  fundamental  need. 

Relative  importance  of  translation  from  Latin  and  translation  into 
Latin. 

Place  of  syntax  in  first  year's  work. 

One  or  several  grammars  ? 

The  transition  to  connected  reading. 

References  : 

Bennett,  The  Teaching  of  Latin  and  Greek,  pp.  50-110;    202- 

212. 
Monatschrift  fiir  hohere  Schulen,  III,  pp.  364  and  395  fF. 
Gurlitt,  Lud.,  Lateinische  Fibel  fiir  Sexta,  Berlin,  1897. 
Thring,  Thinking  in  Shape,  see  National  Education,  a  Sympo' 

sium,  London,  1901,  pp.  115,  116. 
D'Ooge,  Benj.,  First  Year  Latin,  in  School  Review,  Sept.,  1902, 

pp.  532-548. 
Mlinch,  Wilhelm,  Geist  des  Lehramts,  pp.  453  ff.  (ist  edit.). 
Lehrproben  und  Lehrgdnge  (Halle)  No.  75,  p.  8,  and  No.  91, 

p.  I. 


APPENDIX  283 

D.    The  Second  Year  of  Latin. 

The  general  arrangement  in  most  high  schools  concentrates  work 
on  Caesar. 

Description  of  its  character  and  its  results. 

Is  it  possible  to  interpose  some  other  Latin  text  before  Caesar  ? 
How  would  such  an  arrangement  affect  the  work  in  C^sar  ? 

Record  of  various  attempts  in  modification  of  existing  practice. 

The  actual  teaching  of  Caesar  versus  the  ideal  attainable. 

The  aim  in  translation,  in  appreciation  of  content ;  suggestions  of 
practical  aids  to  teaching ;  the  value  of  summaries,  of  class-prepara- 
tion of  advance  work. 

Extent  of  lesson  :  rate  of  advance. 

The  use  of  illustrative  material. 

Various  editions  and  their  distinguishing  features. 

Value  in  the  second  year  of  translation  into  Latin. 

Our  methods  in  Latin  coftiposition. 

Limitations  ;  oral  and  written  work. 

Retroversion. 

Beginnings  of  sight  reading. 

What  does  sight  reading  involve,  how  is  it  to  be  developed  ? 

Its  relation  to  class  work. 

References : 

Kirtland,  Reconstruction  of  the  Latin  Course,  Educational  Review, 

Dec,  1910,  pp.  440  ff. 
Oral  Work :  Rouse,  Classical  Weekly,  Oct.  31,  1908,  p.  37. 
Modern  Side  Latin,  School  (London),  Nov.,  1906,  p.  123. 
Carroll,  M.,  The  New  Classical  Philology,  in  Classical  Weekly, 

March  20,  1909. 
Harwood,  Aids  in  Teaching  Ccesar,  Classical  Weekly,  Jan.  23, 

1909. 
Allison,  Preparation  iti  Class,  Classical  Journal  (Chicago),  Jan., 

1911,  pp.  171  ff. 
Barss,  John  E.,   The  Teaching  of  Latin  Prose  Composition y  in 

Latin  Leaflet,  Dec.  3,  1906,  pp.  1-5. 


284  APPENDIX 

Howard,  F.  H.,  Casar  as  a  Textbook,  in  School  Review,  1897,  pp. 

561-587.     Consult  Bennett,  pp.  150-151. 
Lodge,  in  Proceedings  of  the  N.  E.  A.,  1910,  493  ;  cf.  also  p.  499. 

E.    Sequence  in  Third  and  Fourth  Year  Work. 

Various  theories  and  various  practices. 

The  effect  of  quantitative  prescription  on  the  school. 

Character  of  the  examination  test. 

What  does  the  college  expect  of  its  entering  students  in  Latin  ? 

The  cultural  influences  of  the  classics,  how  arc  they  to  be  secured  ? 

Points  to  be  emphasized  in  the  study  of  Cicero,  Ovid,  and  Vergil. 

Reading  versus  translating. 

Effect  of  the  departmental  system  on  the  teaching  of  the  classics. 

The  teaching  of  ancient  history  in  its  relation  to  the  classics. 

The  Realia  (objects  of  ancient  life,  etc.). 

References : 

Harris,  Wm.  T.,  Report  of  St.  Louis  Schools,  1872.  on  discussion 

of  subject  matter  in  classical  study. 
The  Saalburg  Collection,  vide  Cla.ssical  Weekly,  Jan.  23.  1909. 
White,   E.   L.,    Classroom    Comprehension   of    Cicero,  Classical 

Weekly,  November  9  and  16,  1907.    On  Translation  tests,  see 

Report  of  Committee  on  English  in  Report  of  Committee  of 

Ten,  section  7,  on  page  94. 
Sisson,  Reading  versus  Translating,  School  Review,  XV,   pp. 

508  ff..  XVI.  664  ff. 
For  the  esthetics  of  translation,  see  examples  in  Lane's  Latin 

Grammar,  and  Shorey.  Paul,  Discipline  versus  Dissipation^ 

School  Review,  1896,  217  ff. 

F.    Greek. 

Influence  of  college  action  on  Greek  in  the  schools. 
Varying  points  of  view  with  respect  to  time  allotment 
Distribution  of  work ;  methods  of  procedure ;  some  interesting 
recent  experiments  in  the  teaching  of  Greek  in  Germany. 


APPENDIX  285 

Emphasis  in  Greek  work. 
Technical  Equip>/ient  of  the  Teacher. 

General  relation  of  Latin  and  Greek  instruction  to  the  teaching 
of  English. 

{a)    for  classical  students. 

{b)   for  nonclassical  students. 

References  : 

Bristol,  Geo.    P.,   The   Teaching  of  Greek  in   the  Schools    (in 

volume :    Bennett  and   Bristol,   The  Teaching  of  Latin  and 

Greek)  ;     fundamental  and    complete     for    English-speaking 

students. 
Burgess,  I.  B.,  Bibliography^  in  School  Review,  V,  pp.  625-635. 
German  books  of  reference :  Dettweiler,  P.,   Didaktik  und  Me- 

thodik  des  lateinischen  und  griechischen  Unterrichts,  part  IV, 

pp.  1-93. 
Wilamowitz-Mbllendorff,    U.    von.,  Der    Unterricht   im    Grie- 

chisthen,  in  Lexis,  Die  Reform  des  hoheren  Schulwesens  in 

Preusseny  1902,  pp.  157-176. 
Programm  zttr  Erinnerung  aft  H.  L.  Ahrens,  Hannover,  1882 

(beginning  study  of  Greek  with  Homer). 
Agahd,  Griechisches  Element arbuch  aus  Homer  (Gottingen,  1904). 

Przygode  und  Engelmann,  Griechischer  Anfan^sunterricht  im 

Anschluss  an  Xenophons  Anabasis  (Berlin,  1904),  I  and  H. 
Lehrproben  und  Lehrgdnge,  Halle,  36:   14. 
Waldeck,  A.,  Die  griechische  Grammatik  na.h  den  neuen  Lehr- 

pldnen . 
Bruhn,  E.,  Hilfsbuch  fiir  den  Griechischen  Unterricht  nach  dem 

Frankfurter  Lehrplan  (Berlin.  1903). 
Numerous  articles  in  Monatschrift    flir    hohere   Schulen.  vols. 

I  toX. 

IV.  MODERN  LANGUAGES  —  GERMAN  AND  FRENCH 

A.  Various  Purposes  of  Modern  Language  Teaching. 

Its  place  in  the  high  school. 

Shall  it  be  introduced  into  our  elementary  schools? 


286  APPENDIX 

Shall  one  or  two  modern  languages  be  studied  by  high  school 
pupils  ? 

Character  of  prevailing  modern  language  work  in  our  high 
schools  ;  influence  of  colleges. 

Discussions  on  values. 

What  lessons  in  regard  to  language  teaching  may  European  ex- 
perience of  the  last  thirty  years  teach  ? 

References  : 

English  special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  vol.  i,  pp.  397- 
400 ;  vol.  2,  pp.  648-679 ;  vol.  3,  papers  by  Ware,  Brebner, 
Hausknecht ;  vol  9,  pp.  232-234. 

Spencer,  F.,  Aims  and  Practice  in  Teaching,  Cambridge,  1903, 
chap.  Ill  on  French  and  German. 

Russell,  James  E.,  German  Higher  Schools,  chap.  14,  pp.  266- 
290. 

Colbeck,  C,  On  the  Teaching  of  Modern  Languages  in  Theory 
and  Practice,  1887  (Pitt  Press). 

Vietor,  W.,  Quousque  tandem  ?  Der  Sprachunterricht  muss 
umkehren  (2d  edition),  Marburg,  1886. 

Storr,  F.,  The  Teaching  of  Modern  Languages,  in  Barnett, 
Teaching  and  Organization,  1897,  pp.  261-280. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  Modern  Languages,  their  Culture  Value,  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  XV,  pp.  370-379.  See  Educational  Review, 
Feb.,  1905. 

Methods  of  Teaching  Modern  Languages,  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co., 
1893. 

Rambeau,  A.,  The  Teaching  of  Modern  Languages  in  the  Ameri- 
can High  School,  Die  Neueren  Sprachen,  vol.  13,  No.  4,  pp. 
193  ff. 

Altschul,  A ,  Die  Neueren  Sprachen,  vol.   14,  pp.  405-418. 

B.  Account  of  Present  Tendencies  in  German  and  French 
Schools. 

The  Reform  Method ;  the  history  of  its  struggles  and  its  suc- 
cesses ;  the  leaders  of  the  movement. 


APPENDIX  287 

The  present  status  of  modern  language  teaching  in  European 
schools. 

References  : 

Compayrd,  G.,  Reform  in  Secondary  Education  in  France,  Educa- 
tional Review,  vol.  25,  p.  139. 
Brdal,  M.,  De  Venseignetnent  des  langues  vivantes,  Paris,  1892. 
Sallwiirk,  E.  v.,  Fiinf  Kapitel  votn  Erlernen  frentder  Sprachen, 

Berlin,  1898. 
Lacombe,   Paul,  Esquisse  d'^un  Enseignentent  base  sur  la  Psy- 
chologies Paris,  A.  Colin,  1899. 
Schiller,  H.,   Handbiich  der  Pddagogik   (2d   edition),   Leipzig, 

1890,  pp.  505-535. 
Munch,  W.,  Didaktik  und  Methodik  des  franzosischen    Unter- 

richts  (2d  edition),  Munich,  1902. 
Glauning,  Fr.,  Didaktik  und  Methodik  des  englischen  Unterrichts, 

(2nd  edition),  Munich,  1903. 
Mangold,  W.,  Der  Unterricht  im  Franzosischen  und  Englischen, 

pp.  191-226  of  Lexis,  Die  Reform  des  hoheren  Schulwesefis  in 

Preussen,  Halle,  1902. 
Victor's  "  Neuere  Sprachen,''  a  journal  devoted  to  modern  language 

teaching,  vols.  I  to  XIV,  passim. 
Lehrproben   und  Lehrgdnge,  Halle,   Heft.    98,   pp.   86-96,   and 

numerous  articles  in  its  several  issues,  as  well  as  in   Monat- 

schrift  fiir  hohere  Schulen,  vols.  I-VIII. 
Sachs,  J.,  The  German  Reform  Method  and  its  adaptability  to 

American  conditions.     Publications  of  New  England  Modern 

Language  Association,  I,  30  (Ginn  &  Co). 

C.  How  DOES  Modern  Language  Teaching  Differ  in  Aims 
AND  Methods  from  the  Teaching  of  the  Classics? 

Its  relation  to  the  teaching  of  the  vernacular. 
Phonetics. 

Pronunciation  ;  acquisition  of  vocabulary  ;  idiomatic  ability ;  oral 
and  written  expression. 

Speaking  exercises  and  the  system  of  developing  them. 

The  question  of  translation  from  and  into  the  foreign  language. 


288  APPENDIX 

References : 

Jespersen,  Otto,  How  to  Teach  a  Foreign  Language,  Macmillan, 

1904. 
Breul,  Karl,  The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages  and  the 

Training  of  Teachers,  Cambridge,  1906. 
Widgery,  W.   H.,   77/1?   Teaching  of  Languages  in  Schools,  2d 

edition,  London,  1903. 
Grandgent,  C,  Is  Modern  Language  Teaching  a  Failure  ?     School 

Review,  XV,  pp.  513  ff. 
Walter,  Max,  Aneigniing  und  Verarbeitung  des  Wortschatzes  itn 

Nensprachlichen   Unterricht,  in  Die  Neueren  Sprachen,  Jan., 

1907,  pp.  513-537- 
Walter,  Max,  Englisch  nach  dem  Frankfurter  Reformplan. 
Paulsen,  Fr.,  Humanistic  against  Realistic  £V/7/(ra//(?«,  Educational 

Review,  Jan.,  1907. 
Skinner,  M.  M.,  Some  Practical  Hints  for  Teaching  Students  how 

to  read  German,  School  Review,  Oct.,  1909,  529-541. 

D.  The   Object  Lesson   as  an   Aid  to  Modern   Language 
Teaching. 

Material  aids  to  teaching. 

Grammars. 

Textbooks  :  the  principles  of  selection  (length,  ease  or  difficulty, 
appropriateness)  ;    the  question  of  editing,  of  annotation. 

The  relation  between  literary  material  and  the  life  of  the  foreign 
people. 

References  : 

Brebner,  M.,    The  Method  of  Teaching  Modern  Languages  in 

Germany,  London,  1898. 
Passy,  P.,  Z,a  Methode  directe  dans  Venseignement  des  langues 

vivantes,  Paris,  1899. 
Roden,  A.  v..  Die    Verwendimg  von  Bildern  zu  franzosischen 

und  englischen  Sprechubungen,  Marburg,  1898. 
Bagster-Collins,  German  in  Secondary  Schools,  pp.  77-80. 
Konversations-Unterricht  nach  HolzeVs  Bildertafeln    (German, 

French,  English,  etc.),  Giessen,  Emil  Roth, 


APPENDIX  289 

Rippmann,   W,    German    Picture    Vocabulary,   London,   Dent, 

See^°various   articles   by  Rippmann  and  others  in  The  School- 
World,  1899.  „        ,,  ^ 
CoUard,    F.,  Mtthodologie  de    Venseignement  moyen,  Bruxelles, 

iQ03,'part  II,  chap.  4,  PP- 342-381-  . 

Schwei^zer-Simmonot,  Meihode  directe  pour  V ensetgnement  de 

Vallematid  {V2lx\s,  A.  CoWn).  ■     rj-^i, 

Starr,  W.  Cutting,  The  reaching  of  German  Literature  m  High 

Schools  and  Academies,  School  Review,  April,  191 1,  217  «• 

E.  The  Native  and  the  Foreign  Teacher  ;  Prerequisites  of 
Success. 
Preparation  and  attainments. 
Study  of  conditions  in  America  and  abroad. 
Relation  of  college  and   university   to   the   preparation   of  the 

The  possibilities  of  a  teaching  career  in  modern  language  work. 
The  pedagogy   of  modern  language  teaching  in  its   relation  to 
general  pedagogy. 

References  : 

Breul,  Karl,  The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign   Languages  and 

the  Training  of  Teachers,  ^^.l^-\o\. 
Handbuch  fur    Lehrer    hoherer    Schulen,  Teubner,    1906,   pp. 

Wae'tJoldt!  S.,  Die  Aufgabe  des  neusprachlichen  Unterrichts  und 

die  Vorbildung  der  Lehrer,  Berlin,  1892. 
English  special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  vol.  3,  No.  10 

(Fabian  Ware),  pp.  519-553-  T.nrh.r,  for 

Babbitt    E.  H.,  Preparation  of  Modern  Language  Teachers  for 

A.1L  Institutions,  Transactions  of  the  Modern  Language 

Assn.,  Baltimore,  New  series.  Vol.  I. 
Gouin    F.,  The  Art  of  Teaching  and  Studying  Languages,  3d 

^;T't^^^^^onprofessionelle    a   Venseignement 
secondaire.     Paris,  1902. 


INDEX 


Academic  training,  s,  264. 
Academies,  endowed,  172. 
Addams,  Jane,  150,  186. 
Adjustment  in  the  stages  of  work,  28. 
Adjustment  of  educational  conditions, 

220. 
Administrative  duties,  151. 
Adolescence,  147,  181. 
Aim,  definite,  in  class  exercise,  50. 
Answer,  nature  and  form  of,  142. 
Antagonism,  between  school  types  in 

England,  173. 
Armstrong,  J.  E.,  185,  i8g. 
Armstrong,  Professor,  135  S.,  180. 
Arrest  in  mental  interest,  239. 
Art  of  teaching,  140. 
Assignment  to  introductory  work,  26. 
Atkinson,  F.,  4. 

Attendance,  hours  of  daily  school,  148. 
Attention,  concentrated,  146. 
Attention,  divided,  68. 

Bagley,  153. 

Bascom,  10,  198. 

Baumann,  J.,  7,  8. 

Benson,  A.  C,  71. 

Betts,  133,  141. 

Bremen  teachers,  83. 

Briggs,  Le  Baron,  197. 

Brinkmann,  67. 

Brown,  E.  E.,  85,  187,  201. 

Brown,  J.  F.,  5,  22,  40,  85,  188. 

Burstall,  S.,  63,  100,  iSo. 

Butler,  N.  M.,  6,  77,  96,  136,  147. 

California,  5. 

Canfield,  136. 

Carnegie  Foundation,  43,  90. 

Chabot,  Ch.,  42. 


Character  building,  161. 

Character  plus  scholarship,  164. 

Civic  efficiency,  237. 

Class  book  in  German  schools,  29. 

Class  exercise  as  an  ideal,  144,  147. 

Class  Management,  59. 

Class  periods,  number  per  week,  148. 

Classroom  exercises,  132,  145. 

Cleveland  plan  of  segregation,  189. 

Coeducational  school,  the  dominating 

type,  183,  186  ff. 
College,  a  training  school  for  teachers, 

4.6. 
College  preparatory  course,  86,  209. 
College  requirements,  205. 
College  sections  for  teachers,  7. 
College  standards,  6. 
Colvin,  Stephen  S.,  66. 
Compayr6,  103. 
Completing  a  subject,  128. 
Concentration  and  intensity,  171. 
Concentration  of  schools,  109. 
Concreteness  in  instruction,  140. 
Conditioned  students,  204. 
Conference  of  superintendents,  207. 
Congenial  and  uncongenial  tasks,  62. 
Continuation  schools,  230-241. 
Continuity,  104,  129,  239. 
Cooperation  in  classroom,  137. 
Cooperation  of  teachers,  27. 
Correlation  in  private  schools,  158. 
Correlation,  natural  and  artificial,  145. 
Couyba,  100,  103. 
Criticism,  41,  54  ff.,  263. 
Croiset,  74. 
Cultural  aim  of  schools  in  Germany, 

etc.,  102. 
Cultural  tendency,  223. 
Cultured  man,  definition,  102. 


291 


292 


INDEX 


Danish  peasant  high  schools,  240. 

Davis,  C.  O.,  210. 

Deahl,  J.,  77. 

Definitcness  and  indefiniteness  of  aim 
in  school  systems,  114. 

De  Garmo,  141,  185,  192. 

Departmental  system,  107. 

Dettweilcr,  118. 

Dewey,  John,  68. 

Didactic  skill,  146. 

Differentiation  in  method  of  instruc- 
tion, 165. 

Dilettantism  in  school  policy,  194. 

Dilettantism  in  study,  149,  171. 

Disciplinary  power  in  different  sub- 
jects, 197. 

Discipline  and  instruction,  96,  197. 

Discipline,  direct  and  indirect,  62,  65. 

Distribution  of  studies,  126  ff. 

Dutton  and  Snedden,  177,  185. 

Economy  of  effecttveness,  146,  167. 

Economy  in  time  feasible  in  private 
schools,  167  ff. 

Education,  influence  on  conduct,  161, 
254- 

Educational  export,  function,  242  ff. 

Educational  experts,  194,  207  ff. 

EflBciency,  mental  comparison,  170. 

Effort,  undirected,  135. 

Electives,  19s  ff. 

Eliot,  170,  177,  196. 

Endowment  funds,  154. 

Englewood,  189. 

English  Special  Reports,  i8o,  232,  235, 
241. 

Enlargement  of  intellectual  sympathy, 
227. 

Enrichment  of  elementary  scheme,  106. 

Essentials  of  secondary  school  pro- 
gram, 126,  260. 

Ethics,  practical,  74. 

Evaluation  of  subjects,  224  ff. 

Evening  schools,  233. 

Examination  by  instalment,  129. 

Examinations,  254. 

Exchange  teachers,  42. 

Expenditures  for  buildings,  176. 

Experimentation  in  schools,  194,  259. 


Expression,  116,  125. 
Extraneous  activities,  149. 
Extravagance  of  four-year  high  school, 
108. 

Family  life,  weakness  of,  149. 
Farrington,  74,  98. 
Faunce,  79, 150. 
Feminization  of  schools,  184. 
Financial  aspect  of  high  school  ques- 
tion, public  and  private,  174  ff. 
Findlay,  57. 

First-year  work,  importance,  23  ff. 
Fiske,  John,  147. 
Flexibility,  145. 

Flexibility  of  private  schools,  157,  174. 
Foreign  language  study,  120. 
Foster,  William  T.,  196. 
France,  moral  instruction,  73. 
France,  public  instruction,  98,  206. 
Frick,  38,  143. 
Fries,  35,  38,  40. 

Gansberg,  F.,  83. 
General  continuation  schools,  236. 
German  gymnasia!  seminary,  20,  35  ff. 
German  secondary  schools,   165,   200, 

216  ff. 
German  teacher,  60. 
Germany,  assignment  of  teachers,  26. 
Girls'  schools,  teachers,  183. 
Gilbert,  78. 
Goethe,  11. 

Grouping  of  subjects,  12,  193. 
Group  system,  195,  199. 
Growth  in  knowledge,  14. 
Guidance  by  exjierienced  teacher,  19, 

21,  135- 

Hadley,  196. 

Halle,  37. 

Hanus,  113. 

Harris,    William    T.,    iii,    136,    158, 

199. 
Harrison,  Caskie,  198. 
Hartog,  117. 
Harvard,  new  requirements,  89,   172, 

205. 
Henderson,  133,  138. 


INDEX 


293 


High  school,  length  of  daily  session, 
148. 

High  school,  parallel  courses,  201. 

Higher  elementary  school  (England), 
218. 

Hildebrand,  R.,  n8. 

History,  place  in  curricxilum,  122. 

HoUister,  H.  A.,  80,  185. 

Home,  absence  of  authority,  163. 

Home  and  school,  72,  160  fi. 

Home  preparation,  131,  134,  136. 

Home  work,  147. 

Humanistic  ideal,  France  and  Ger- 
many, 103. 

Idleness,  engrossing,  186. 
Inbreeding  of  teachers,  258. 
Individuality,  108, 150, 160. 
Inefficiency,  97,  150,  171,  180. 
Inspection,  253. 
Intellectual  growth,  48,  186. 
Intellectual  stimulus,  227  S. 
Intensive  interest  in  a  subject,  due  to 

what?   127. 
Interpretation,  119. 
Investigation,  expert,  252. 

James,  William,  77. 

Judgment,  discriminating,  67. 

Junior  and  senior  high  schools,   109, 


Kelsey,  116. 
Kelvin,  Lord,  192. 
Kerschensteiner,  G.,  124,  230. 

Lagardelle,  97. 

Langlois,  35,  42. 

Language  study,  preponderance,  125. 

Laurie,  S.  S.,  24. 

Lehman,  Rud.,  97,  118. 

Lehrplane  und  Lehraufgaben,  82,  101. 

Lehrproben  und  Lehrgange,  30,  143. 

Length  of  school  life,  256. 

Lesson  hearing,  135. 

Lexis,  37,  TOO. 

Liberal  education,  100. 

Logic  in  Mathematics,  123. 

Logical  sequence,  199. 


Loos,  65. 
Luckey,  19. 

Magnus,  Sir  Ptolip,  188. 

Male  teachers,  178,  190. 

Manual  arts,  125,  213. 

Mark,  H.  T.,  77,  108,  130. 

Martineau,  Dr.,  198. 

Mathematical  course,  122  £F. 

Mathematical  teaching,  47,  113. 

Matthias,  A.,  118,  143. 

McCrea,  8. 

McMurry,  30. 

Method,  discussion  of,  52. 

Methods  of  study,  change,   105,   107, 

III,  164. 
Meumann,  134. 
Minimum  requirements  of  admission, 

203. 
Mobility  in  classroom,  60. 
Model  lessons,  29  £F. 
Model  school,  54. 

Modern  language  teaching,  47,  121. 
Monatschrift   fiir  hohere  Schulen,  20, 

97,  165,  196. 
Moral  education,  79  5.,  192. 
Moral  instruction,  73  ff. 
Moral  qualifications  of  teachers,  70  £F. 
Morality  undeveloped,  150. 
Miinch,  134,  162. 

Munich  continuation  system,  237  ff. 
Myers,  76. 

Narrowing  tendencies,  10. 

Needs,  special,  of  a  community,  257. 

Neff,  35- 

Nightingale,  A.  F.,  85. 

Non-collegiate  interests,  87,  210. 

Normal  schools,  2,  3. 

Nucleus  of  secondary  school  work,  1x5. 

Observation  of  teaching,  51  ff. 
Oral  expression,  119. 

Palmer,  George  H.,  77. 
Parallel  courses,  201. 
Parental  neglect  of  duty,  161. 
Parents'     attitude     toward     private 
schools,  160  ff. 


294 


INDEX 


Part-time  instruction,  153. 

Paulsen,  42,  165. 

"Pedagogy,    philosophic    foundations 

of,"  97. 
Periods,  number  per  week  allotted  to 

one  subject,  128. 
Perry,  John,  47. 
Pettee,  113. 
Petzoldt,  108. 

Physical  equipment  of  teacher,  60,  6r. 
Popular  demands  v'ague,  92. 
Practice  teaching,  55,  57  ff. 
Preparation,  daily,  44. 
Preparation  for  life,  92,  215,  222. 
Principal,  breadth  of  view,  13,  159. 
Pritchett,  4,  43,  90,  112,  204,  234. 
Private  school,  basis  of  success,  182. 
Private  schools,  criticism,  156  S.,  163, 

173- 
Private  schools,  educational  standards, 

156  g.,  163,  168. 
Private   schools,    relation   to   parents, 

157,  162,  168. 
Private  schools,  socially  desirable,  155. 
Private  schools,   value  of  continuity, 

159,  164,  167,  169. 
Professional  recognition,  17. 
Professional  spirit,  16. 
Professional  training  of  teachers,   17, 

34- 
Program,  weekly,  127,  150. 
Proletariat,  intellectual,  97. 
Providence,  R.I.,  19. 
Prussia,  20,  202,  206,  231. 
Public  high  school,  pupils,  172. 
Public   high   schools,    teaching    force, 

178  ff. 

Quality  of  teaching,  ioi  ff.,  238. 
Quality  rather  than  quantity,  151,  258. 
Questioning,  art  of,  141. 
Questioning,  ideal  character,  143. 

Range  of  teaching  interests,  n  ff. 
Readjustment  of  school  course,  108. 
Realschulen  of  Germany,  201. 
Recitation,  antiquated  type,  146. 
Recitation,  character,  131,  133,  137  ff. 
Recitation,  conduct  of  a,  144  ff. 


Recitations,  number  per  week,  130  ff. 

Reflection  and  trial,  39. 

Rein,  65,  99. 

Reinstein,  141. 

Relation  of  salaries  to  school  income, 

175- 
Religious  instruction,  Germany,  82  ff. 
Remissness  of  parents,  161. 
Report  Boston  School  Commission,  86. 
Report  Commissioner  Education,  24, 

86,  152,  179,  231. 
Report  Committee  of  Fifteen,  49. 
Report   Committee  of  Ten,   89,    114, 

224  ff. 
Reviews,  141. 
Routine,  46. 
Rugh,  C.  E.,  192. 
Rule  and  exception,  32. 
Russel,  J.  E.,  14. 

Sachs,  J.,  187. 

Sadler,  Sir  Michael,  10,  92,  94,  97,  loi, 
117,  149,  170,  201,  215,  2x8,  221,  241, 
242-267. 

Salaries  of  teachers,  177,  261. 

Salmon,  Lucy,  112. 

Schiller,  Hermann,  38. 

Schmidt,  P.,  134. 

Scholastic  attainment,  6,  164. 

School  boards  and  their  aims,  178. 

Schuyler,  R.  I.,  17. 

Science  teaching,  method,  124. 

Secondary  school  autonomy,  88  ff.,  91, 
205. 

Secondary  school,  historical  develop- 
ment, 85. 

Secondary  schools  of  Germany  and 
France,  98  ff. 

Secondary  teacher  in  Germany,  11. 

Segregation,  partial  or  complete,  152. 

Self-consciousness  in  adolescents,  120. 

Self-government,  63  ff. 

Self-realization,  149. 

Shortage,  109. 

Six-year  high  school  course,  106, 108  ff., 
113- 

Skill  in  presentation,  127. 

Smith,  AnnaT.,  187. 

Smith,  D.  A.,  47,  97,  122,  221,  228. 


INDEX 


295 


Snedden,  D.  S.,  211,  215. 

Social  atmosphere  of  private  schools, 

iSS- 
Solidarity  of  first-year  work,  24. 
Specialization  in  secondary  schools,  g, 

265. 
Specialized  vocational  school,  236. 
Standards  of  scholarship,  41,  172,  185. 
Steinbart,  165. 
Stenography,  gs,  227. 
Stevens,  143. 
Study  periods,  152. 

Subjects  of  high  school  courses,  114  5. 
Suggestions  and  recommendations  for 

improvement,  249. 

Teacher  —  a  learner,  14,  15,  43  2. 
Teachers  —  effect  of  inexperience,  23. 
Teacher's  individuality,  49,  226. 
Teacher's  standard,  44,  146,  264  ff. 
Teachers'  colleges  and  the  schools,  18. 
Teachers  for  vocational  schools,  213. 
Teachers'  meetings,  15. 
Teaching,  maximum  number  of  periods, 

151- 
Teaching  staff,  41,  178. 
Tenure  of  office,  superintendents,  205. 
Tenure  of  oflSce,  teachers,  178. 
Textbook,  its  place,  xii,  33,  131  ff. 
Thorndike,  E.  L.,  109. 
Thoroughness  v.  superficiality,  no  ff. 
Trades-union  type  of  teacher,  17. 
Training,  197. 


Training  college  (England),  3. 

Training  to  judgment,  64,  95. 

Transition,  elementary  to  secondary 
schools,  104,  106,  252. 

Types,  different,  of  German  secondary 
schools,  201. 

Types,  differing,  of  instruction  in  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  schools,  104. 

Utilitarian  tendencies,  192,  2x5  ff., 
261. 

Variety  of  subjects,  114. 
Vernacular,  teaching  of,  116  ff. 
Virility  of  teacher,  63,  in,  182. 
Vocational  eflSciency   of  high  school, 

214. 
Vocational  specialization,  danger,  212. 
Vocational  training,  189. 
Vocational  v.  Uberal    education,    211, 

223. 
Voss,  35. 

Ware,  170,  217. 

Wheeler,  B.  I.,  150. 

Women  teachers  and  adolescence,  181. 

Women  teachers  in  high  schools,  178  ff., 

190. 
Women  teachers,  their  value,  183. 
Woodhull,  J.  F.,  10. 

Young,  J.  W.,  47. 


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subject  embodies  the  soundest  and  most  practical  teachings  on  all 
matters  pertaining  to  the  physical  and  material  side  of  school  life. 
"  This  volume  will  at  once  take  its  place  as  one  of  the  most  useful  edu- 
cational contributions  of  the  present  year,  when  one  takes  into  account 
the  tremendous  significance  of  right  hygienic  conditions  in  the  school 
life  of  the  pupil.  This  volume  ought  to  be  studied  in  every  normal 
school  and  every  training  class  in  the  land.  With  so  satisfactory  a 
manual  as  this,  teachers  are  in  no  small  degree  culpable  who  display 
a  lack  of  knowledge  of  right  hygienic  conditions  in  the  schoolroom." 

—  Journal  of  Pedagogy. 


THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Aveane  New  York 


date  stamped  below 


'':</) 


AU6  31SM 
JUL  2  \  1949 

MAP  9  2  ,95c 

'^'-'23  /950f 

SEf|  2  8 1978 

^p^ji  2,1198c 


lOm-4,'28 


-15 .Sachs    -The 

7cliQol . 


L  009  591   832  2 


^  SCEOof 


